WE, your Memorialists, the Members of the One Hundred and Twenty-fifth Legislature of the State of Maine now assembled in the Second Regular Session, most respectfully present and petition the President and the Congress of the United States as follows:

WHEREAS,  the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program is a necessary federal program that was created in 1981 to replace a patchwork of federal energy assistance programs that arose from the energy crisis of the 1970s, and since that time this program has helped the people of Maine who need fuel assistance; and

WHEREAS,  Maine, one of the most oil-dependent states in the nation, has received $39,981,695 to fulfill its program obligations, down from $56,600,000 last year; and

WHEREAS,  approximately 64,000 families in Maine receive aid through the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program, with an average benefit last year of $804, and 53% of the households served include low-income senior citizens or persons with disabilities; and

WHEREAS,  the decrease in funding will disproportionately affect the New England states, which are already facing a 25% increase in the cost of home heating oil this year, and these states have a dire need to have the funding restored; and

WHEREAS,  the Low-income Home Energy Assistance Program is crucial to those Maine families who are relying on the federal program to help with weatherization costs for their homes and with winter fuel bills, and this reduction in funding is a devastating blow to people already hit hard by the recession; now, therefore, be it