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Yesterday the Senate Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee held a mark up of its appropriations bill and this morning they released the text of the bill. The Senate recommends $300 million for the Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) for FY 2020. This is an increase of $43 million over the enacted FY 2019 level of $257 million. This is also $10 million more than the level of $290 million that the House recommended earlier this summer. Additionally, the Senate bill recommends increasing the amount of training and technical assistance funds for the Department of Energy weatherization office from $3 million to $3.5 million. You can view the Senate bill here. Weatherization is on page 89.

House and Senate negotiators will have to work out the differences between their versions of the appropriations bill. While Congress is widely expected to need a Continuing Resolution to fund the majority of the government past the end of the fiscal year on September 30th, some speculate that the Energy and Water bill could be finalized before that deadline.

The Senate Labor-HHS subcommittee abruptly canceled its hearing on its funding bill earlier this week. The Labor-HHS bill contains the funding numbers for both the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG) and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).

NASCSP will keep you updated as more information becomes available.