[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 199 (Thursday, December 14, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S18583-S18585]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      LOW-INCOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE

  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I rose last week to talk about an issue 
that is critical to people in my State, and across the Northeast and 
upper Midwest. There have been scores of editorials in major newspapers 
all across the country dealing with a fundamental moral issue that we, 
in this Nation, are confronted with this week in the Senate and House 
of Representatives.
  The title of this editorial is ``Pray for Warm Winter. GOP Plans Mean 
Pork and a Loss of Heating Aid.''
  I am going to be joined by a number of colleagues throughout the day 
who want to speak on this issue. My colleague from Wisconsin is here, 
Senator Kohl. I wish to make sure that other colleagues know that only 
late last night did we realize we would have some time today. But there 
have been a number of Senators who have taken a lead on this issue--
Senator Leahy, Senator Jeffords, Senator Cohen, Senator Snowe, Senator 
Kennedy, Senator Harkin, Senator Abraham, Senator Moynihan, and 
others--Democrats and Republicans alike.
  Mr. President, fuel assistance programs across the country have run 
out of money, and people are being forced out in the cold. We are 
confronted with the fierce urgency of now, and time rushes on. Quite 
frankly, whether or not this continuing resolution is for 2 or 3 days, 
or whether there is another continuing resolution for 1 week or 
whatever has absolutely nothing to do with the essential fact that 
there are men, women, and children in the Northeast, Midwest, and cold 
weather States who are going cold right now. More short-term fixes 
won't cut it anymore. There are long waiting lists throughout the 
country, and when people in this program don't get served, they don't 
heat their homes. In the State of New York, for example, I have heard 
that people are being told to come back in March to apply for energy 
assistance. Come back in March, when it's freezing there now. In my 
State of Minnesota--and I am sure it is the case in my colleague's 
State of Wisconsin--this weekend temperatures are right around zero.
  We have to allocate this money now, and the problem is that for all 
of our States we are faced with the situation of needing the money 
desperately, right now. Let there be no mistake. This is not really a 
1-year program, it is basically a 6-month heating program. We need to 
get funding to people for energy assistance now. By this time in 
Minnesota last year, as opposed to $9 million, we had about $25 million 
out in our State. Right now, Mr. President, 

[[Page S18584]]
there are 31,000 applications now pending; 16,000 cannot be served; 
close to 4,000 people in crisis, many in a no-heat situation. In 
Minnesota, many have been turned away.
  This is outrageous. It is unconscionable. So what we have to do is 
make sure that in this continuing resolution--Friday, Monday, starting 
with the one Friday by midnight--we have a formula that accelerates the 
delivery of funding to our States, to the cold weather States so people 
do not freeze to death. We cannot go forward on this ad hoc basis--a 
little bit here and a little bit there but not enough to serve long 
waiting lists of people. Our country can do better.
  In the State of Minnesota last year, 110,000 households, about 
330,000 people, were served by this program. Grants were about $380 or 
thereabouts. The heating bills for people were far more than that 
during the winter but in many cases this at least enabled people to get 
by.
  Many of the people who benefit are elderly people who live on Social 
Security benefits. Many of them are families with children. Many of 
them are families struggling with disabilities. Many of them are 
minimum wage workers.
  It is unbelievable; in the House of Representatives this program was 
eliminated outright, cut by over $1.3 billion. The total cost of the 
energy assistance program for the whole country is less than one B-2 
bomber. This reflects seriously distorted priorities. These are not the 
priorities of the vast majority of people in this country.
  There are editorials in newspapers all across the country which 
essentially are saying what the vast majority of people are saying. 
What we are doing right now in Washington, DC, is too harsh and it is 
too extreme; it is too punitive. It must not be allowed to continue.
  Let me give a couple of examples of folks in my state who have been 
affected by these immediate, huge cuts. Clara Mager is a 73-year-old 
resident of an Iron Range town. I mentioned her problem briefly the 
other day. She receives about $675 a month in Social Security. She 
lives alone, and she raised 6 children on her own. She just received a 
grant of approximately $220. She owed her fuel provider, Intercity Oil, 
$177, and on Monday she had only 60 gallons left in her fuel tank. She 
does not know how she is going to make it through the winter, and she 
does not know whether she can stay in her house.
  Nancy Watson is 55 years old, from Clear Lake, MN, and disabled. Her 
income on SSI and MSA is $529 a month. She received a grant of only 
about $80 this year, and she does not know what she is going to do. It 
is far less than in the past because we are not getting the allocations 
of funds out there in the communities.
  In Blue Earth County--we are getting calls from all over the State--a 
self-sufficient 90-year-old woman lives alone; her monthly income is 
$204. Right now she has closed off almost all of her home, I say to my 
colleague from Wisconsin; she is living in one room. She is heating one 
room. She has not been able to get the energy assistance she needs this 
year. She does not know where she is going to go, and she thinks she is 
going to basically have to leave her home and go into a nursing home.
  Mr. President, there are people in my State, and in Wisconsin, and in 
many other States across this land right now, who either have no heat--
can you imagine that in the United States of America? There are those 
who are living or heating one room, or who have turned the thermostat 
down to 50 degrees, or who are using their oven to try and heat their 
home, whose furnaces have not been repaired but should be, but there 
was no funding for that, who are running with dangerous, badly 
maintained kerosene stoves, running a fire hazard, with the risk of 
carbon monoxide poisoning. This is the United States of America?
  And so, Mr. President, let me just be clear about this to my 
colleagues, Democrats and Republicans alike: The Low-Income Energy 
Assistance Program requires a minimum amount of resources, but it goes 
to the core of what we are about. This is a cold-weather lifeline 
program. This is not an income supplement. This is a survival 
supplement.
  Family values, Mr. President, are about extending a helping hand. 
Family values are about giving people hope. Family values are about 
compassion. Family values are about all of us here understanding the 
implications and consequences of what we do.
  My God, we have statistics and alphabet soup, OMB, CBO, baseline 
budgets and all the rest. Too often, it is a bloodless debate. I am 
talking about people who are desperate, right now, today, in the State 
of Minnesota, who are having to go without heat, or being forced to 
scrounge funds from friends, relatives, charities to buy fuel.
  What is it going to take--someone freezing to death?--for us to take 
action? Then it will be too late. Time rushes on. Time is not neutral. 
People are going cold in America. We can do better.
  And I say to the administration, if there is no agreement come 
midnight Friday, since this was last year's funding, they should put 
out this money now. The money is there, waiting to be released, but 
it's constrained by law until midnight tomorrow. After that, the 
administration should release the $1 billion--it is already there--and 
get the funding out to the States and out to the communities so people 
do not go cold and so people do not freeze to death.
  I did not come here to the U.S. Senate from the State of Minnesota to 
be silent, especially not in the face of this kind of cruelty and 
unthinking slashing of the budget. I believe there is goodness in 
people. I believe there is goodness in people and it extends way beyond 
party. And I believe this is a moral issue. I honest to God believe 
this is a moral issue.
  I think the problem is that we have gotten so caught up in the 
statistics that we just do not understand what the implications are, 
what this translates into in personal terms and human terms.
  Mr. President, let me just simply say that as I understand this 
chart, just looking at the LIHEAP allocation by December of 1994, at 
least $800 million had been allocated out to communities. By the end of 
the second quarter, that number had shot to well over a billion 
dollars. That is last year. It is now December 15, 1995, and $231 
million all together been allocated under the continuing resolution. 
That says it all.
  Last year by this time about $800 million had gone out to our 
communities to make sure that men, women and children do not go cold in 
America, do not freeze to death in America. By the way, don't anybody 
believe that this is scare tactics. Talk to any of the people who are 
out there trying to serve--Salvation Army, churches, foundations--that 
are trying to serve people right now, and they will tell you the same 
thing. By December 15, 1995, only $231 million. That will make for a 
cold Hanukkah and a cold Christmas for many Americans who depend on 
LIHEAP funds.
  One would think we could do better in this next continuing 
resolution. We have to accelerate the funding right now, and if we do 
not do that in a continuing resolution and there is no agreement, the 
administration needs to release the money right now. I yield to my 
colleague from Wisconsin.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Mr. KOHL. I thank my colleague from Minnesota.
  We are from the same geographical part of the United States so we 
have the same problem, and my outlook on this problem that we are 
facing is very similar to Senator Wellstone's.
  We have 130,000 low-income families in Wisconsin who desperately 
depend on this energy assistance. They are, all of them, families who 
live at or beneath the poverty level, and they are understandably and 
without question in need of this assistance.
  For whatever reason, the face of Government this week is on display 
to our country. We are going to demonstrate whether or not we 
understand here in Washington what it is to be poor and to be living in 
bitter cold and whether or not we are prepared to respond to that 
desperate need that these low-income families have for energy 
assistance to heat themselves and their families on their meager 
resources.
  For reasons that are not understandable, we here in Washington have 
decided to fund this energy assistance, not when it is needed as we 
have been 

[[Page S18585]]
doing heretofore in the program, which is to say, get the money out 
during the winter months, but we have decided not only to cut LIHEAP 
but also to fund it in 12 equal annual installments.
  Anybody listening to this debate this morning knows that that does 
not make any sense. The money needs to be gotten out during the winter 
months, this month and next month, and sending out that money to these 
low-income families in June and July and August does not make any sense 
when they need the money in December and January and February.
  If we are not able to respond to that need, as Senator Wellstone has 
said, now, this week, by tomorrow, we will have demonstrated that we do 
not have the compassion to understand what is going on in our country 
and what the purpose of Government is, if it is not to help those who 
are in genuine desperate need.
  So we have a crisis, and we have an ability to respond to that 
crisis. We are talking about, as Senator Wellstone has said, a total 
amount of money of less than $1 billion, which is a cut from what it 
had been last year.
  LIHEAP last year was funded at $1.3 billion. We decided to cut it to 
$1 billion. As Senator Wellstone pointed out, the House wants to zero 
out the program entirely. That debate between the House and the Senate 
has not yet been resolved. But, in the meantime, we have a continuing 
resolution which does fund LIHEAP at a billion dollars, and we have to 
see to it that that money gets out to those people in desperate need of 
now. The next day or two will demonstrate what the face of our 
Government is and what it is we are interested in depicting to the 
people of the United States, whom we represent.

  So I urge my colleagues, along with Senator Wellstone and many 
others--53 Senators have signed a letter urging the negotiators to act 
quickly, with dispatch and without delay, on this urgent need. I urge 
my colleagues to see to it that our negotiators here in Congress, and 
in the administration, act in a way which is sensible and compassionate 
for those in our country who need our help so urgently at this specific 
time.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. Mr. President, I thank my colleague from Wisconsin. 
Again, really, I think this is the beginning of the discussion today. 
There will be time--and I believe a number of us will be back on the 
floor throughout the day. We are going to keep pushing on this.
  Senator Kohl mentioned this letter, dated December 8 and signed by 54 
Senators, to Chairman Hatfield, who I really want to say right now has 
been very committed to trying to do something about this. He has been 
great in the U.S. Senate, and we are going to dearly miss him. I know 
he feels as if his hands are tied at the moment. He is very committed 
to do something about the acceleration of getting the funding out to 
communities. But 54 Senators have signed this letter, simply saying, 
look, we have to get the funds out. Temperatures have dropped below 
freezing, there is snow on the ground, and we simply are not able to 
get the money out.
  There is a real sense of urgency here. So there is a tremendous 
amount of support for this on the Senate side. I have been in contact 
with many offices. I know Senator Leahy, Senator Kerry and others are 
very, very committed to this and are very anxious for us to get this 
resolved. Senator Specter from Pennsylvania, as well. I mean, Democrats 
and Republicans alike want to get this done. This has become a moral 
issue. I do not believe that is an exaggeration.
  Are we going to dilly-dally around here and play games and talk about 
all these statistics, and yet not come together to make some change in 
a formula to make sure that we get some urgently needed funds out into 
communities so people do not freeze to death in the United States?
  Mr. President, when we went through the rescissions package, I held 
that package up for a short period. Part of the reason I did that was, 
there was a deal late at night, and all of a sudden over $300 million, 
or thereabouts, was cut from the energy assistance program. I remember 
saying in the debate then that if this is a glimpse of what is to come, 
I do not want to have anything to do with it. This is too harsh, too 
extreme, it is too radical. This is beyond the goodness of people in 
America. And when we were faced with our first continuing resolution, 
at one point in time there was some suggested language that said that 
until the Labor, Health and Human Services appropriations bill is 
passed, there can be no allocation of energy assistance money. What is 
going on here? What is going on? This is so harsh and so extreme. While 
we beat that effort back, the problem is even more urgent now.
  Mr. President, this article says, ``Buffalo Prays for a Warm 
Winter.'' We can do better than that, can we not? Are we not 
policymakers? Is that what people are supposed to be reduced to, 
praying for warm weather? Do we need to just pray for a warm winter? It 
is not a warm winter in Minnesota. We need to take action.
  Another article focusing on LIHEAP funding problems says, ``A Heap of 
Trouble in New York.'' A Lexington, KY, paper has a headline here that 
says ``Staying Warm.'' The list goes on. Beaver, PA, ``Bankruptcy, 
Heating Program for the Poor Hit.'' In the Maine Sentinel, ``Heating 
Program Cut; Out in the Cold.'' ``Timing Wrong for Eliminating Weather 
Aid,'' Albany. The list goes on and on, Mr. President. ``Cold 
Comfort,'' Boston Globe. Des Moines Register, ``A Shameful Place to 
Cut. A rich nation can help its poor stay warm in the winter.'' The Des 
Moines Register editorial says LIHEAP is a shameful place to cut. A 
rich nation can help its poor stay warm in the winter. Is that not true 
any longer?
  Mr. President, this is a shameful place to cut. Our Nation can do 
better, and, in my State of Minnesota, there are citizens who are going 
without heat, and one is one too many. There are people who are cold, 
and one family is one too many. There are families who depend on this 
energy assistance, so they do not get cold and so they will have enough 
resources to be able to purchase prescription drugs if that is what 
they need, or food. The total cost of this program was less than the 
cost of one B-2 bomber. The Des Moines Register is right, a rich nation 
can help its poor stay warm in the winter.
  Mr. President, in this situation, time rushes on; time is not 
neutral. We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. I assume 
there is goodwill on the part of all of my colleagues, and I assume I 
will receive a tremendous amount of support. Fifty-four Senators 
already have gone on record as saying we have to act now.
  Mr. President, I believe that for the next 2 days this must be a 
priority for the U.S. Congress, and for the next week it must be a 
priority to make sure that people in the United States of America--men, 
women and children--do not go cold. We must make sure that we do not 
have people freezing to death in the United States of America. The 
issue could not be clearer.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Thomas). Who seeks recognition?

                          ____________________