[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 8 (Tuesday, January 28, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Page S702]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     RELEASE EMERGENCY LIHEAP FUNDS

  Mr. JEFFORDS. Mr. President, last Thursday 48 Senators representing 
the Northeast-Midwest Senate Coalition, which I chair with Senator 
Moynihan, my colleague from Vermont Senator Leahy, and Senators from 
other States hard hit by skyrocketing heating prices and cold weather, 
sent a letter to President Clinton asking him to release $300 million 
in emergency low income home energy assistance funds [LIHEAP].
  The 1997 Omnibus Appropriations Act allows the President to release 
up to $420 million in LIHEAP emergency funds. In the Northeast and 
Midwest, the price of home heating oil has jumped over 25 percent from 
last year, while natural gas and propane prices in all cold weather 
States are significantly higher. The Reverend Dr. Robert E. Martin of 
Newport, VT recently wrote me that the propane bill of the Lowell 
Congregational Church has risen 52 percent over last year. Any 
distribution of emergency LIHEAP funds must take into account this rise 
in fuel prices, which in Vermont, so far, has been worse than the 
weather.
  Mr. President, the rising cost of energy weighs heavy on low-income 
working Americans who devote about 12 percent of their income to energy 
bills. The elderly and disabled low-income individuals relying on 
supplemental security income spend on average 19 percent of that income 
on energy bills, and families with children living on Aid to Families 
With Dependent Children devote almost 25 percent of their benefits to 
energy bills.
  Although many State regulations prohibit utilities from terminating 
service for nonpayment during the winter, households that rely on home 
heating oil, propane, and wood do not have this same safety net. These 
households must pay for services up front or face fuel cut offs. With 
the prolonged spike in fuel prices, additional Federal funds are needed 
to prevent many families from having to face life threatening cold this 
winter.
  Mr. President, freezing temperatures and high fuel prices are a 
recipe for disaster for low-income Americans. Forty-eight Senators from 
both parties are urging President Clinton to act quickly so that low-
income Americans do not have to choose between heating and eating this 
winter.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor for others who desire to speak on 
this important issue.
  Mr. WELLSTONE addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Minnesota.
  Mr. WELLSTONE. I thank the Chair.
  Mr. President, I always appreciate working with the Senator from 
Vermont and the Senator from Massachusetts. We have been on the floor 
before talking about low-income energy assistance, and we really have 
to be on the floor today speaking about this.
  Sometimes we talk about these issues, and we just talk. It may not be 
connected to people's lives. But what we say today on the floor of the 
U.S. Senate is connected to people's lives in many of our States.
  It is between 8 and 15 degrees below zero in most of Minnesota today. 
It might get to zero this daytime.
  Mr. President, we have had a brutal winter in our State and, in 
addition, as the Senator from Vermont mentioned, natural gas prices are 
up 60 percent from last year's prices, heating oil is up 40 percent 
over last year, and the cost of propane is 60 percent higher than last 
year.
  Our State is colder than it was last year. It costs much more to heat 
a home. These oil prices have skyrocketed, and this means we have a 
crisis, all in capital letters.
  Mr. President, the Governor, Governor Arne Carlson, has used $9 
million of the State's fund for additional assistance, but we have in 
fiscal year 1997 additional money, several hundreds of millions of 
dollars, for emergency energy assistance. It is an emergency.
  In Minnesota, we have about 300,000 citizens who are dependent upon 
this lifeline program. It is not a large grant. It averages about $350, 
but for many of these citizens--many of them elderly, many of them 
children--this is a lifeline program, without which either people go 
cold or people huddle in one room in their home. I wish that was an 
exaggeration, but it is not. I have visited with these families. Our 
people somehow figure out how to pay for their heat, but then they 
don't have enough money to buy food or they don't have enough money to 
buy prescription drugs that they need. This is a particular problem 
with the elderly.
  Mr. President, we are going to run out of assistance. We are going to 
have a dire situation in Minnesota. This is no melodrama on my part. It 
is time this emergency money be released.
  Almost every day I am on the phone talking to the White House, 
talking to Health and Human Services, the Office of Management and 
Budget, and I don't speak on the floor of the Senate today to point the 
finger, because I believe that in the next few days--the sooner the 
better--the White House will release this money.
  Last year, I went to the President--other Senators joined: Senator 
Kennedy, Senator Jeffords, and others--and just made the request face 
to face. I said, ``Mr. President, I don't want people to go cold in my 
State.''
  This is not an exaggeration. I am sure that this money will be 
released, but today on the floor of the Senate, my appeal to the White 
House is: Please, make the decision. Please, make the decision today. 
Please release the funding. Time is not neutral. Time is not on our 
side. It doesn't do any good to get the funding in April. We need this 
assistance for vulnerable citizens in our cold-weather States, and we 
need it now.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  Mr. KENNEDY addressed the Chair.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Massachusetts.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, I intend to speak to the Senate about 
this same subject that my friend, Senator Wellstone, spoke to. I think 
all of us have understood his strong leadership on this issue a year 
ago or 2 years ago and before he was elected. Now he is again battling 
away on the same issue with the same powerful voice, and I join in 
expressing strong appreciation for all of his leadership.

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