By Geof Koss, CQ Staff

Already hampered by declining budgets and facing higher energy costs and a colder winter, state programs that help low-income residents pay their power bills are bracing for additional belt-tightening should across-the-board budget cuts take effect Jan 1.

With temperatures starting to fall nationwide, dozens of House and Senate lawmakers last week urged the Obama administration to quickly release funds for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP.

“This funding has been a lifeline during the economic downturn, helping to ensure that recipients do not have to choose between paying their energy bills and paying for food and medicine,” Sens. Jack Reed, D-R.I., Olympia J. Snowe, R-Maine, and 38 other senators wrote last week in a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebellius.

The Oct. 10 letter — and a similar one signed by dozens of House members — coincided with the release of a gloomy winter fuels outlook by the Energy Information Administration. It predicted colder weather and higher fuel prices will drive heating costs much higher than last year’s relatively mild winter.

Users of heating oil, in particular, could face record costs. They are expected to use 17 percent more oil, which will cost 2 percent more, for an average total of $407 more per household this winter.

While the LIHEAP program, which provides grants to states, tribes and territories to help low-income residents heat or cool their homes, remains politically popular, Congress has repeatedly cut its budget in recent years — even as demand for heating assistance has risen.

The Congressional Research Service reports that LIHEAP funding peaked at $5.1 billion in fiscal years 2009 and 2010 before declining to $4.7 billion in fiscal 2011. The program was reduced again in fiscal 2012 to $3.47 billion, a level maintained in the six-month continuing resolution (PL 112-175) that President Obama signed in September.

LIHEAP is something of an anomaly because Congress essentially included a full year of funding in the six-month resolution.

The decision was pushed by Northeastern lawmakers, who recognized that most of the program’s annual budget will be spent in the next few months, said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Director’s Association. “The cold weather states will obligate a large percentage of their money between now and January.”

Wolfe called it essential for the federal government to disburse grants as states ready for what the Energy Information Administration says will be an 11 percent increase in heating costs this winter.

Complicating states’ efforts is the threat of sequestration, which under last year’s agreement to raise the debt limit will cut 8 percent from most discretionary accounts on Jan. 1. An analysis prepared by Democrats on the Senate Appropriations Committee estimates LIHEAP stands to lose $270 million if Congress does not delay or reverse the cuts.

Wolfe said the timing couldn’t be worse. “Sequestration hits right in the heart of winter and we really do need these funds,” he said.

A survey that his organization released last week highlights the effects of the funding reductions LIHEAP has already absorbed in recent years. The research found that households receiving LIHEAP assistance in fiscal 2012 declined to 6.9 million from 8 million the previous fiscal year.