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In this
March
29, 2017
photo,
Rosebud
Sioux
Tribe
member
Eva
Iyotte
discusses
an
energy
assistance
program
that
faces
elimination
under
President
Donald
Trump in
White
River,
S.D.
(Photo:
James
Nord,
AP) |
|
Native
American
tribes
fear end
of
federal
heating
help
By
JAMES
NORD
ap.org
WHITE
RIVER,
S.D. -
Eva
Iyotte
was
waiting
on
propane
ordered
under a
federal
energy
assistance
program
President
Donald
Trump
has
targeted
for
elimination
when she
lost
power at
her home
on
frozen
tribal
land in
South
Dakota.
As the
January
conditions
sent
temperatures
plummeting
inside
the
house,
the
63-year-old,
her
daughter
and two
grandsons
took
blankets
to their
car,
where
they
waited
with the
heater
running
until
the
electricity
was
restored.
Iyotte
said
there
would be
many
more
cold
days
like
that if
the
program
ends.
It's
unclear
whether
Congress,
which
passes
the
federal
budget,
will
agree to
the
change
the
Trump
administration
is
seeking.
"We
might be
poor,
but
we're
like
other
people.
We want
to
survive,"
said
Iyotte,
a member
of the
Rosebud
Sioux
tribe.
"If that
program
is cut,
I don't
know
who's
going to
help us
out."
Tribal
officials
in
states
with
harsh
winters
fear
what
would
happen
without
the Low
Income
Home
Energy
Assistance
Program,
also
known as
LIHEAP.
Ending
it, as
Trump's
budget
blueprint
would
do,
could
disproportionately
affect
Native
Americans,
backers
of the
program
say.
Iyotte
said
propane
is the
primary
heating
source
for her
home. As
she
waited
for it
to
arrive
in
January,
she kept
a pot of
water
boiling
on the
electric
stove
for
warmth -
until
the
power
went
out.
"People
will
die"
without
LIHEAP,
said
Eileen
Shot,
who
administers
it for
the
Rosebud
Sioux,
which
has
gotten
about
$850,000
this
fiscal
year.
Trump's
budget
blueprint
calls it
a
"lower-impact
program."
It's not
Trump's
only
move to
spur
concern
among
tribes.
His
strong
support
for oil
pipelines
including
Dakota
Access
and
Keystone
XL put
him in
direct
opposition
to
American
Indians
who have
long
resisted
both
projects.
LIHEAP
helps
low-income
households
meet
their
heating
and
cooling
needs.
Under
federal
income
guidelines,
American
Indians
qualify
for the
program
at
slightly
higher
rates
than
Latino
and
black
households,
and far
higher
than
whites,
according
to a
February
report
from the
Joint
Center
for
Political
and
Economic
Studies,
a think
tank
that
supports
officials
and
experts
who
serve
minority
communities.
Besides
tribal
members'
higher
poverty
rates,
some
reservations
are in
rural
areas
with
extreme
weather,
and many
are home
to large
populations
of young
and
elderly
members,
making
the help
even
more
critical,
said
Clara
Pratte,
director
for the
Campaign
for Home
Energy
Assistance,
which
works to
ensure
the
LIHEAP
program
is fully
funded.
The
federal
government
each
year
directly
funds
LIHEAP
to
roughly
150
tribal
governments
and
organizations.
Those
groups
provided
about
43,000
Native
American
households
with
heating
assistance
during
the
12-month
period
that
ended in
September
2016,
according
to
preliminary
data.
Tribes
have
gotten
$33.3
million
since
October,
part of
a larger
$3
billion
handed
out to
date
nationwide
for the
current
budget
year.
Tribes
that
don't
apply
directly
to the
Administration
for
Children
and
Families
to
administer
LIHEAP
are
typically
served
through
the
corresponding
state
program.
Trump
has also
proposed
eliminating
all
funding
this
fiscal
year
that
hasn't
already
been
apportioned.
Robert
Rector,
a senior
research
fellow
at the
conservative
Heritage
Foundation,
said
LIHEAP
is an
inefficient
program
that
would be
better
run and
funded
by
states.
He said
advocates
for
every
federal
program
that
assists
low-income
people
unrealistically
treat it
as the
"only
thing
standing
between
the poor
and some
dark
future."
"I like
to say
it's
kind of
like
looking
at a
jigsaw
puzzle
where
you only
look at
one
piece at
a time,"
he said.
States
were
expecting
the
program
to be
funded
at least
$3.3
billion
for the
12-month
period
that
begins
this
October,
said
Mark
Wolfe,
executive
director
of the
National
Energy
Assistance
Directors'
Association.
He said
it's
unlikely
that
states
would
make up
all that
money if
the
federal
program
ends.
"There
are a
number
of ways
to help
people
afford
energy,
but you
can't
take
$3.3
billion
away
from
this
program
without
consequences,"
Wolfe
said.
"The
amount
of money
is so
significant
it
cannot
be made
up by
supplemental
state
funding
or
charitable
resources."
A
spokeswoman
for Sen.
Mike
Rounds,
a South
Dakota
Republican,
said in
a
statement
that
Trump's
budget
proposal
is "only
the
president's
recommendation."
During
the
appropriations
process,
the
Senate
will
look at
the
merits
of each
program,
said
spokeswoman
Natalie
Krings,
adding
that
LIHEAP
has been
funded
in the
past and
will
likely
continue
to be
funded
in the
future.
Paulette
Ecoffey,
40, said
that she
sees the
program
helping
her and
many
other
people
on the
Pine
Ridge
Indian
Reservation.
The
Oglala
Sioux
member
late
last
year got
two
cords of
wood
through
the
program
for her
wood
stove,
which
helped
heat her
trailer
for
about a
month.
"Wood's
like
gold in
my
house,"
said
Ecoffey,
whose
furnace
gave out
about 2
1/2
years
ago.
"That's
how we
keep
warm."
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