Snowe holds up Katrina bill in bid for home heating aid

WASHINGTON -- After months of fruitless efforts to add more federal money for home heating assistance, Maine Senator Olympia Snowe has used a parliamentary maneuver to put a hold on a federal relief program for victims of Hurricane Katrina until the Senate is allowed to vote on energy grants for low-income homeowners.

Energy prices remain at record highs in New England, and four states -- Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Maine, and New Hampshire -- have already used up their grants from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, Republican of Tennessee, last year promised Snowe a vote on additional energy funds, but a handful of Republican senators have used the Senate's practice of allowing individual senators to place holds on votes to block the bill.

In response, Snowe placed a hold on more funds for a flood insurance program that provides money to homeowners and businesses damaged in last year's hurricanes, according to Senate aides.

A spokesman for Snowe said the senator is seeking to add another $1 billion to the energy program this year by taking it out of next year's budget.

Bob Stevenson, a spokesman for Frist, declined to discuss the dueling holds by Republican senators but said the majority leader was ''trying to work towards a solution" and that a vote on Snowe's bill could happen ''at any time" after Congress returns from this week's recess.

The $1 billion proposed by Snowe would still fall far short of the additional $2.9 billion per year the program needs, according to Mark Wolfe, the executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association, which represents state heating-assistance agencies.

''A billion is enough to barely get by," Wolfe said.

Senators Jeff Sessions, an Alabama Republican, and Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican, have both publicly acknowledged putting holds on Snowe's bill.

A spokesman for Coburn, John Hart, said the senator didn't object to increasing energy funding but said taking the money out of next year's budget amounted to a ''a budget shell game."

''If this is a legitimate request, let's pay for it in a legitimate way," Hart said.

Some Democrats, while backing Snowe's bill, were also wary of taking money out of next year's budget.

''Robbing 2007 funds to pay 2006 home heating costs makes no sense," said Democratic Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts in a statement.

New England lawmakers began seeking additional heating funds shortly after Katrina disrupted energy supplies in late August, causing already high energy prices to surge. Efforts to add funding have failed repeatedly in the Senate.

Most recently, the Republican leadership added $2 billion in energy funding to a defense bill to entice Northeastern lawmakers into voting for another provision in the bill that allowed drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

When that vote failed and drilling provision was stripped from the bill, the energy portion was removed, too.