Health and Human Services (HHS ) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced January 20, the release of $490 million in FY 2010 LIHEAP emergency contingency funds to help low-income households cope with record cold temperatures and high unemployment.
Of the total, all states, tribes and territories recevied a share of $450 million. Fouteen states received another allocation of $40 million based on cold weather, unemployment and number of households at 125 or below the federal poverty level.
The contingency funds released are in addition to basic LIHEAP funding states receive automatically. HHS released $2.6 billion in October and $1.2 billion last week in regular block grant funds. The $490 million release is from a $590 million LIHEAP contingency fund leaving $100 million available for unanticipated events in the contingency fund. In total, Congress appropriated $5.1 billion for LIHEAP in Fiscal Year 2010.
Several worksheets provide a complete list of state and tribal allocations of the emergency funds and the methodology used to calculate allocations.
Source: HHS
