Bush Signs Continuing Resolution that Doubles Weatherization

By now, the Community Action network should be aware that the Weatherization Assistance Program has essentially doubled for next year.

The continuing resolution that Congress passed and President Bush signed into law Tuesday contains last year’s $227 million, plus gives another $250 million for a total of $477 million. This is phenomenal news!

The somewhat frustrating news is that I have no idea why or how it happened. On most legislative efforts I’m involved with, afterward I can point to a small number of actions, meetings, or members that tipped the scale one way or the other.

National Community Action Foundation came at this weatherization increase from all sides. We’ve been arguing for quite some time that weatherization is an inexpensive way to significantly participate in the energy debate because of the difference it makes for low-income families. As well, it is a program that has been crying out for leadership and is a tremendous departure from the administration, which wants to zero out weatherization.

I talked to House Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-WI), House Energy and Water Committee Chairman Peter Visclosky (D-IN) and Ranking Member David Hobson (R-OH), about doubling the program. I met with House and Senate leadership and a number of other members about raising weatherization dollars in any additional stimulus packages. We talked to people who influence Democratic leadership and got weatherization on their priority lists.

In the end, I can’t tell you what single event made the difference. That doesn’t happen often. This may be a case of a lot of things having made the difference. Regardless, this is a gratifying win near the end of a very frustrating legislative year.

NCAF has been asked to prepare a white paper on how we can get this program weatherizing 1 million homes a year. We’ve been asked to include what training, resources and skills would be necessary to meet that challenge. We have been arguing that Congress should look at a $250 million increase this year and an additional $250 million for 2010, so that this could be a $1 billion program down the road. However, at the current capacity, that would still only be up to about 650,000 homes.

We will prepare this white paper before the election and will plan to post it on this blog to gather feedback from our readers in the network.

-- David Bradley, NCAF Executive Director, Washington