WASHINGTON – Despite pressure from New England senators, the White House has not yet released an additional $300 million to help the poor pay heating and cooling bills because fuel supplies are high and forecasters predict a milder winter than last year, a federal official said Tuesday.

“We will be monitoring those circumstances closely,” Wade Horn, an assistant secretary with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, told the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee. “As circumstances warrant, we will expeditiously release those emergency funds.”

Congress in July approved $300 million for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP.

Those funds were in addition to $1.4 billion approved for the program in 2001. Also, President Clinton released $855 million in emergency funds for the program before leaving office.

The White House has refused to release the $300 million, despite repeated requests from senators representing cold-weather states. They say the money is needed immediately to help the poor cover unpaid heating bills from last year, reconnect households whose power was cut off, and bolster coffers for the coming winter.

Even if the winter is mild, “the events of the past few weeks and the deteriorating economy make clear that this winter may well be one of the longest and hardest in many years for large numbers of people,” said Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., the committee chairman.

Nationwide, the number of households receiving LIHEAP last winter rose from 3.9 million to 5 million, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association.

In Massachusetts, about 123,000 households received LIHEAP aid last year, an increase of 8.5 percent over the previous year.

The number could rise to 6 million this year because of layoffs related to the Sept. 11 attacks, particularly among lower paying sectors of the hospitality, travel and related industries, said Mark Wolfe, the group’s executive director.

LIHEAP is also growing in demand in regions where it traditionally has not been popular. Last year, a dozen states in the South and West reported 40 percent increases or more in LIHEAP caseloads, the energy directors’ group said.

Horn acknowledged that demand has risen. But he pointed to the emergency funding released by Clinton, and said this year’s average residential heating bill should be $170 to $320 lower than last year’s.

Also, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has started sending out the first batch of LIHEAP grants for this year, even though Congress still has to complete the spending bill for the program.

Overall, LIHEAP is expected to get about $1.7 billion this year, and an additional $300 million in emergency aid.