[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E104-E105]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      THANK YOU FOR FUNDING LIHEAP

                                 ______


                          HON. BERNARD SANDERS

                               of vermont

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 25, 1996

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. Speaker, I want to offer my complete gratitude to 
the House of Representatives and the leadership for their support of 
full-funding for the Low-Income Energy Assistance Program [LIHEAP] to 
be allocated to States immediately. Last night I delivered the 
following letter to the chairman of appropriations, which was signed by 
154 Members of Congress, asking for the immediate release of the $190 
million remaining in fiscal year 1996 allocation for LIHEAP:

     Hon. Bob Livingston,
     Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Capitol, Washington, 
         DC.
       Dear Chairman Livingston: As you know there is 
     approximately $190 million remaining in FY 1996 allocation 
     for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). 
     When a continuing resolution is developed on January 26th, we 
     would very much appreciate your releasing 100 percent of 
     these funds immediately.
       While $810 million in LIHEAP funds have been released so 
     far this year, these funds are not even half of the LIHEAP 
     monies allotted to the states in FY 1994 and significantly 
     less than the $1.3 billion allocated in 

[[Page E105]]
     FY 1995. In order to deal with the problems that our cold weather 
     states are currently experiencing, it is essential that the 
     full $1 billion in LIHEAP funds be released this year.
       As you know LIHEAP is a time sensitive program, providing 
     heating assistance to low-income households during the cold 
     winter months. As you also know there has been brutally cold 
     weather throughout America, and states are in desperate need 
     of funding for heating assistance.
       Last year, an estimated 6.1 million households received 
     LIHEAP benefits. Three-quarters of those households had 
     incomes of less than $8,000 per year. The average LIHEAP 
     family spent 18.4 percent of their income on the cost of home 
     energy, compared with 6.7 percent for all households. Unless 
     action is taken immediately, hundreds of thousands of 
     Americans who live in the coldest states will again be unable 
     to heat their homes. We don't want to see families forced 
     from their homes because of unpredictably cold weather.
       We encourage you to take immediate action in the next 
     continuing resolution to assist millions of low-income 
     Americans in need of heating assistance this winter.
           Sincerely,
       Representatives: Bernard Sanders, Peter Blute, Martin Sabo, 
     Peter Torkildsen, Amo Houghton, Mike Ward, John Elias 
     Baldacci, Joseph Moakley, Joseph Kennedy, John Olver, Phil 
     English, Rick Boucher, Sam Gejdenson, John McHugh, Harry 
     Johnston, Paul McHale, Ronald Dellums, Tim Johnson, Jose 
     Serrano, Eddie Bernice Johnson, Nydia Velazquez, Sheila 
     Jackson-Lee, Michael Doyle, Robert Borski, Collin Peterson, 
     Luis Gutierrez, Sue Kelly, Carrie Meek, Albert Wynn, Victor 
     Frazer, James Oberstar, Glenn Poshard, Gerry Studds, Barney 
     Frank, Thomas Sawyer, Ed Whitfield, Frank Lobiondo, and 
     Sherwood Boehlert.
       Robert Andrews, Eva Clayton, Eliot Engel, Benjamin Gilman, 
     Charles Schumer, Donald Payne, Nancy Johnson, Cynthia 
     McKinney, Richard Neal, Major Owens, Rosa Delauro, Earl 
     Pomeroy, Elizabeth Furse, Peter DeFazio, Patrick Kennedy, 
     David Minge, James Longley, Matthew Martinez, Paul Kanjorski, 
     Henry Gonzalez, Bob Wise, Jim McDermott, Edolphus Towns, Tim 
     Holden, James Clyburn, Norman Sisisky, Nick Rahall, George 
     Brown, William Coyne, Frank Mascara, Earl Hilliard, Gerald 
     Kleczka, Maurice Hinchey, William Clinger, Dale Kildee, Rick 
     Lazio, Carolyn Maloney, Patricia Schroeder, Martin Meehan, 
     Thomas Foglietta, Frank Tejeda, Ike Skelton, William Clay, 
     Pat Williams, Jim Ramstad, and Andrew Jacobs.
       Vic Fazio, Lane Evans, James Barcia, Barbara Kennelly, 
     Sherrod Brown, Robert Menendez, Alan Mollohan, Ron Klink, 
     John Conyers, Louise Slaughter, Jack Reed, Harold Volkmer, 
     William Martini, Gary Ackerman, Sander Levin, Lee Hamilton, 
     Steny Hoyer, Sanford Bishop, James Traficant, Richard Durbin, 
     Bart Stupak, Gene Green, Jack Quinn, Bob Filner, Ron Wyden, 
     Marcy Kaptur, Scotty Baesler, Connie Morella, Jerry Costello, 
     Martin Frost, Jon Fox, Floyd Flake, Tom Barrett, Henry 
     Waxman, Robert Ney, John Murtha, Michael Castle, Rodney 
     Frelinghuysen, Charles Rangel, Jerrold Nadler, George Miller, 
     John Dingell, Edward Esteban Torres, Lynn Rivers, George 
     Gekas, and Bobby Rush.
       John LaFalce, John Lewis, Blanche Lambert Lincoln, Susan 
     Molinari, Eleanor Holmes Norton, Thomas Manton, Lucille 
     Roybal-Allard, Nita Lowey, Harold Ford, Gary Franks, Michael 
     McNulty, Tony Hall, Edward Markey, Norman Dicks, Christopher 
     Smith, Robert Scott, Sidney Yates, Robert Torricelli, David 
     Bonior, Thomas Petri, Marge Roukema, Michael Patrick 
     Flanagan, Jesse Jackson, Jr., James Walsh, and Pat Danner .