A Pennsylvania-based U.S. senator is renewing calls for funding hikes to home heating assistance programs after years of declines he feels have frozen-out low-income residents.

Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., blamed the cuts on budget sequestration and said nationally only 20 percent of those eligible access the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) currently, with about 398,000 households or 25 percent of an eligible 1.6 million households being served in Pennsylvania.

And with temperatures now dropping, Casey said he wants an increase in heating assistance funding in 2017 that “helps vulnerable seniors and working families stay warm during the winter.”

He added, “Heating assistance from the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program has been battered by the sequester. Nationally only 20 percent of those eligible for heating assistance access the program in part due to lack of awareness and funding.”

Casey wants that to change and is calling on legislators to restore sequester cuts he said have seen more than a million dollars for LIHEAP lost in Pennsylvania and thousands of households left out in the cold.

By county, Casey said $311,348 was spent on LIHEAP in Elk County in the last year; $578,641 in McKean County; $105,346 in Cameron County; and $229,830 in Potter County.

Those figures are down from years past, including in Elk County where roughly $284,000 fewer has been allotted than in 2012; followed by $85,000 fewer in Cameron County; $900,000 fewer in McKean County; and $343,000 less in Potter County.

Overall, Casey’s office said the cuts sustained by the program have seen funding for it dropped by five percent or $175 million.

An attempt to contact Casey’s counterpart in the Senate, Republican Pat Toomey, was unsuccessful Thursday.