Press Releases

Today, Congressman Jim McGovern (MA-02) applauded the announcement that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will provide more than $3 billion in funding for energy assistance, including $133.3 million for Massachusetts. In 2014 alone, 183,009 households in Massachusetts received LIHEAP funding.

This comes just days after McGovern joined a bipartisan group of lawmakers calling for the swift release of LIHEAP funding to give families in need access to critical assistance to heat their homes during cold winter months.

“Every year, close to 200,000 Massachusetts families count on LIHEAP funding to help pay for their home heating costs, including many seniors who are already on a fixed income,” Congressman McGovern said. “Thanks to the swift release of this funding, this critical lifeline will be available to our families in need in communities across Massachusetts. I am grateful to HHS Secretary Burwell for heeding our call and to my fellow lawmakers for joining me in our bipartisan push to ensure our most vulnerable families and seniors can count on this aid as we face another cold winter.”

The HHS Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program is a federal program that helps low-income individuals including many seniors, veterans and the disabled pay their energy bills. The program is available during winter and summer months. $3.35 billion in LIHEAP funding was released for fiscal year 2015. LIHEAP provided heating assistance to more than 6.6 million households and cooling assistance to more than 1 million households during fiscal year 2014.

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