Home Heating Stamp Act

Summary

Home-Heating Stamp Act - Amends the Food Stamp Act of 1964 to establish a home-heating stamp program to reduce the hardships imposed on low-income households by high home-heating costs and to permit such households to obtain reasonable amounts of home-heating fuels through normal channels of trade. Directs that such program be administered by the Department of Agriculture and the appropriate State agencies which administer the food stamp program. Defines a "household" for the purposes of this Act as a group of individuals who are not residents of an institution and are living as one economic unit, or a single individual living alone. Exempts recipients of supplemental security income benefits from the kinds of restrictions on their participation found in the food stamp program. Limits the home-heating fuel stamp program to the fifty States and the District of Columbia. Authorizes the issuance of home-heating coupons which shall have a greater monetary value than any charge paid by eligible households and which shall be used only: (1) to purchase home-heating fuels from approved providers; or (2) in the case of a household which rents its residence and does not pay its home-heating fuel bill directly to a provider, to offset any rent due its landlord. Requires landlords accepting such coupons as partial rent payment to use such coupons to pay all or part of their fuel bills and prohibits them from increasing rents in connection with or as a result of the use of home-heating coupons by an eligible household. Provides that such coupons shall be redeemable at face value, and that the coupon allotment for any household shall be in an amount reflecting the monthly equivalent of the minimal cost of a reasonable amount of home-heating fuel for a single heating season. Limits the validity of coupons to one heating season, not to exceed six months, which shall be established for a State by the State agency. Requires as a charge to participating households for their coupon allotments a standard percentage of the monthly household income in no event more than the percentage of personal consumption expenditures shown to be spent on home-heating fuels by the best information available to the Secretary. States that no such charge is to be made to households with an income of less than $30 per month for a family of four. Directs the Secretary of Agriculture to establish uniform national standards of eligibility for participating households; and also allows the establishment of temporary emergency standards, for the duration of the emergency, without regard to income or other financial resources, for households that are victims of a disaster which disrupts the normal distribution of home-heating fuels. Directs the Secretary to approve home-heating providers under regulations patterned after those used to approve retail food stores and wholesale food concerns for participation in the food stamp program. States that the administrative provisions of the Food Stamp Act of 1964 shall apply equally to the home-heating fuel program. Requires, in the administration of such program, that all practicable efforts by made to insure that assistance provided does not induce unnecessary additional consumption of home-heating fuel.

This text is taken from the official record. PoliticalRepo does not editorialize.

Timeline

1. 3 February 1977

   Introduced

   Referred to Senate Committee on Labor and Public Welfare (Subsequently: Human Resources).

   Source: IntroReferral

2. 3 February 1977

   Introduced

   Introduced in Senate

   Source: IntroReferral

Votes

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Versions

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Documents

1 official file

• Introduced in Senate

  summary · EN · 3 February 1977

  Open at official source

Sponsors

• Sen. Mathias, Charles McC., Jr. [R-MD] · R · Sponsor
• Sen. Baker, Howard H., Jr. [R-TN] · R · Cosponsor
• · sshr00 · Standing

Related records

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