WASHINGTON -- Connecticut will receive nearly $7 million in additional federal funds to help low-income families pay their heating bills.

President Bush Wednesday released $120 million remaining in a Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program contingency fund that was available in the 2008 fiscal year that ends Sept. 30.

Connecticut will receive $6,962,123 of those funds, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

Connecticut Gov. M. Jodi Rell and the state's congressional delegation -- including Rep. Christopher Shays, R-4, and Rep. Chris Murphy, D-5 -- have been urging Bush to release the contingency funds for more than a month.

Rell, in a statement Wednesday, said it was "great news" for the state's energy assistance program.

"I sent personal appeals to the White House for the release of this funding and enlisted Connecticut's Congressional delegation to help press for the money," she wrote. "Governors from across New England and all over the nation joined me in asking President Bush to provide the funds because we know the coming winter is going to put a strain on family budgets that may well exceed any experience in recent memory."

She said the money would keep the heat on in homes across the state. "I will continue to turn up the heat on Washington to provide still more of this crucial funding," Rell said.

"I am grateful for this funding, which will benefit many across our state in the coming weeks," said Shays in a press release announcing the funding.

Shays said that LIHEAP will provide "critical short-term assistance" to families but argued that a "long-term energy policy" is needed "to decrease U.S. dependence on foreign oil, protect the environment, build a market for renewable energy and promote energy conservation."

Murphy said the funding is a "critical down payment for the very expensive home heating season" in the state.

"It would have made absolutely no sense for $100 million in funding for people who desperately need it this winter to disappear simply because of the inaction by the President," he wrote in a press release. "I am thrilled that the president listened to the New England delegation and made the right choice to help people in desperate need this winter."

Murphy and Shays are also supporting efforts to at least double the funding for LIHEAP in the next fiscal year. The program received $2.57 billion this year.