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Pingree Opposes Trump Plan That Would Shift Money From Assistance Programs To Coronavirus Fight

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree and two other Democratic House members have expressed strong opposition to President Trump's plan to shift $37 million from LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, to help fund his plan to combat the spread of coronavirus.

“Which is kind of unthinkable, that he would take that money. So you've got a vulnerable population, you know, hardly able to heat their homes, and they could be the same one who are affected by the virus.”

The President is also taking money from a variety of other funds for substance abuse and mental health services, the National Institutes of Health and from CDC programs dealing with HIV/AIDS prevention, environmental health and chronic diseases.

"I think he's reacting to the coronavirus because, you know obviously, it's a crisis and he's very worried about making sure the administration appears to be doing something about it, but to go about raiding all these other important programs that are critical to many of our states just doesn't make any sense," Pingree says.

Pingree and her House colleagues have included their concerns in a letter to House and Senate leaders.

In a tweet, Republican Senator Susan Collins also takes issue with the Trump plan. She says transferring money from LIHEAP to fund the coronavirus fight is the wrong approach and would hurt low-income families struggling to pay their heating bills.

Thursday evening Collins and U.S. Sen.  Jack Reed (D-RI) issued a statementthat said, "Our priority is keeping people safe and healthy, but taking money from LIHEAP would have the opposite impact." 

Updated 6:10 p.m. Feb. 27, 2020 to add the statement from Senators Collins and Reed.

Ed is a Maine native who spent his early childhood in Livermore Falls before moving to Farmington. He graduated from Mount Blue High School in 1970 before going to the University of Maine at Orono where he received his BA in speech in 1974 with a broadcast concentration. It was during that time that he first became involved with public broadcasting. He served as an intern for what was then called MPBN TV and also did volunteer work for MPBN Radio.
Nora is originally from the Boston area but has lived in Chicago, Michigan, New York City and at the northern tip of New York state. Nora began working in public radio at Michigan Radio in Ann Arbor and has been an on-air host, a reporter, a digital editor, a producer, and, when they let her, played records.