[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 9 (Wednesday, January 24, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H778]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FUEL ASSISTANCE PROGRAMS IMPORTANT FOR AMERICA

  (Mr. SANDERS asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, in the United States of America millions of 
our citizens should not be forced into worrying about how they are 
going to heat their homes in this record breaking cold weather winter.
  In Vermont and throughout this country we have had nights of 20 below 
zero, 30 below zero, and even 40 below zero.
  The LIHEAP Fuel Assistance Program has provided over 24,000 Vermont 
households, and 6 million low-income households nationally, including 
many senior citizens, with the fuel assistance they need to survive the 
freezing weather. Three-quarters of the households on LIHEAP have 
incomes of less than $8,000 a year.
  Today, I am sending Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert 
Livingston a letter with over 115 congressional signatures, Democrats 
and Republicans, asking him to make certain that the continuing 
resolution that is passed by Friday contains full funding for LIHEAP--
and that the remaining $200 million that was appropriated is released.
  This is America, and 80-year-old senior citizens should not be forced 
to go cold in the winter.

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