Home heating aid stalls in D.C.

Senate legislation divides Dole, Burr

WASHINGTON -- With costs continuing to rise for heating oil, natural gas and electricity, social service advocates fear a coming crisis for families struggling to make ends meet this fall and winter.

Yet, work in Congress to increase government help for heating and cooling bills has been caught up in the wider political debate about gas prices and oil drilling, worrying some advocates that the poor will suffer.

A Senate bill to add $2.5 billion to the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program failed in a procedural vote Saturday.

The program offers grants for households to help cover heating and cooling costs.

"It's really a recipe for disaster unless they get more funding," said Brandon Avila, spokesman for the Campaign for Home Energy Assistance, an advocacy group based in Washington.

The bill, the Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer Act, needed 60 votes to move forward, but it failed 50-35. Republican leaders had vowed to block any energy measure that didn't focus on gas prices and new energy production.

Both North Carolina senators, Republicans Richard Burr and Elizabeth Dole, missed the weekend vote. They would have split on the issue.

Burr had a previously scheduled family engagement; Dole had events scheduled in North Carolina.

Dole was a co-sponsor of the bill and would have voted "yes," said her spokeswoman, Katie Hallaway. Still, she said the Democrats were "playing politics" rather than dealing with high gas prices.

"Senator Dole believes the Senate's top priority should be delivering a comprehensive solution to our energy crisis," Hallaway said in a statement. She suggested adding program funding as an amendment to a larger energy bill.

Burr would have voted against the bill although he, too, supports the program, said Chris Walker, his spokesman.

"The Democratic leadership is trying to get off the energy debate," Walker said. "This isn't a game where you can only do one or another. We should do both."