Sen. Elizabeth Dole voted against an amendment on a home-energy assistance bill in 2006.
Started in 1981, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, provides funding to states to provide one-time assistance to millions of people who need help paying their heating and cooling bills.
In 2006, Sen. Olympia Snowe of Maine proposed transferring an additional $1 billion from the 2007 budget for more immediate assistance that year.
During debate on the proposal, Dole voted against an amendment proposed by Snowe. The amendment passed 68-31. The overall bill later passed the Senate on a voice vote.
Dole spokesman Dan McLagan said Dole objected to how the money would be spent.
"The vast majority of the package was aimed at cold-weather states," he said. "All this money was going to go to northern states for a winter that had been mild, versus southern states that had a hot summer."
He added that more people die from hot weather than cold.
A recent ad by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, citing this vote, says Dole voted "against helping families struggling to keep their homes."
That wording — plus images of a foreclosure sign on a home — makes it sound as though Dole voted against help for homeowners, but the vote was actually on a heating bill.
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