The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program borrows from next year ...

The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program

Federal assistance for home energy costs, dates backto the oil crisis of the 1970s, and affects some 5 million families nationwide. Proponents of expanding the program say the $2 billion budget doesn't go very far when there are some 33 million households, spending about $55 billion a year in energy costs, eligible for the program.

$1 billion had been set aside for fiscal 2007. New legislation, which still must be considered by the House, passed by a voice vote Tuesday, but only after a lengthy debate between northern state senators, who said rising heating costs were creating a crisis in their states, and lawmakers from warmer states who claimed they were being shortchanged.

Sen. Olympia Snowe's, (R-Maine) original bill would have distributed $250 million under an existing formula that would mainly benefit warm-weather states. The remaining $750 million would have been labeled contingency funding and disbursed at the discretion of the President.

"We don‘t deny there is a need," said Rep. John Ensign, R-Nev. But "is it fair across the country or does it benefit some states and not other states?"

Last week Snowe successfully overcame opposition from conservative Republicans, led by Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., who tried to kill the bill on the grounds that the spending was not offset by cuts in other programs.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt said in a statement that he supported Snowe's bill. "This is a positive step to provide additional aid for those in need of energy assistance this year."

Meanwhile Congress have not even considered the Governments ability to raise borrowing limits..... shucks let's spend next years money now.