[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 117 (Wednesday, July 16, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6818-S6820]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 LIHEAP

  Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, in response to the outrageously high cost 
of fuel all across this country, and the fact that people both in the 
southern part of America and the northern part of America are very 
worried about how they are going to stay warm next winter and stay cool 
this summer, I introduced S. 3186, the Warm In Winter And Cool In 
Summer Act, which will provide immediate relief to millions of senior 
citizens, families with children, and the disabled who are struggling 
to pay their home energy bills. Specifically, this bill would nearly 
double the funding for the highly successful Low Income Home Energy 
Assistance Program, that is the LIHEAP program, in fiscal year 2008, 
taking LIHEAP from $2.57 billion to $5.1 billion, a total increase of 
$2.53 billion. I mention that is, in fact, what this program is 
authorized for.
  I thank Majority Leader Reid for completing the rule XIV process. My 
hope is that this legislation, this bill, will be on the Senate floor 
either this week or next week because it is imperative that we move it 
as quickly as possible.
  There are many Members of the Senate, Democrats, Republicans, 
Independents, who have been active on the LIHEAP issue for a number of 
years. I want, at this time, to announce that we have now 40 Senators 
who are cosponsors of this tripartisan legislation. That includes 10 
Republicans. It includes 30 Democrats and 1 Independent in addition to 
myself, making 2 Independents.
  The cosponsors of this legislation are Senators Obama, Snowe, 
Majority Leader Reid, Smith, Durbin, Coleman, Murray, Sununu, Landrieu, 
Collins, Leahy, Murkowski, Clinton, Gregg, Cantwell, Lugar, Kerry, 
Dole, Kennedy, Bond, Schumer, Levin, Cardin, Brown, Klobuchar, 
Menendez, Casey, Bingaman, Lautenberg, Stabenow, Bill Nelson, Baucus, 
Lieberman, Salazar, Rockefeller, Wyden, Jack Reed, Dodd, Whitehouse, 
and Tester.
  In other words, we have very strong tripartisan support, from the 
northern part of our country, from the southern part of our country--
all over. People look at the degree of partisanship that takes place in 
Congress. I am happy to say this bill is bringing all kinds of people 
from all kinds of ideologies together to say we have a crisis now; that 
in the United States of America people should not freeze to death in 
the winter; in the United States of America people should not be dying 
of heat exhaustion in the summer.
  In addition to engendering widespread tripartisan support in the 
Senate, another bill, exactly the same, is being circulated in the 
House with very good cosponsorship. Furthermore, I am happy to say we 
have over 200 groups, national and local groups from all over the 
country, that are supporting this legislation. They include, among many 
others: AARP, the city of Phoenix, AZ, Catholic Charities, Salvation 
Army, the American Red Cross, the American Association of People with 
Disabilities, et cetera, et cetera--tremendous grassroots support from 
all over the country.
  Let me quote from the AARP which, as you know, is the largest senior 
group in this country. This is what they say:

       AARP fully supports the Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer 
     Act. This legislation will provide needed relief for many 
     older persons who may not receive assistance--despite their 
     eligibility--due to a lack of funding. Older Americans who 
     are more susceptible to hypothermia and heat stroke know the 
     importance of heating and cooling their homes. They often 
     skimp on other necessities to pay their utility bills. 
     However, today's escalating energy prices and the Nation's 
     unpredictable and extreme temperatures are adding to the 
     growing economic hardships faced by seniors. LIHEAP is 
     underfunded and unable to meet the energy assistance needs of 
     the program's eligible households.

  That is from the AARP. I reiterate, Mr. President--what I know you 
know--there are some Americans and maybe even Members of Congress who 
do not know that when we talk about LIHEAP, we are not just talking 
about the problems that occur in my State where the weather gets 20 
below zero or in your State. We are talking about problems that take 
place in Arizona and Texas, where temperatures get to be 110, 115 
degrees. With a declining economy and escalating utility bills, many 
people--seniors, disabled, lower income people--cannot afford their 
electric bill. Their electricity is being disconnected. You are finding 
elderly people, people with illnesses, in a very horrendous position.
  This is not just a northern State issue. It is not a New England 
issue. This is, in fact, a national issue and that is why we have 
cosponsorship for this bill from all over the country.
  I have talked in the past and will talk again, obviously, about what 
LIHEAP means for northern States such as my own, but let me say a few 
words about what it means for southern States. Let me quote from the 
city of Phoenix, AZ.
  This is from Phoenix, and the person there is saying:

       I am writing to express my support for the Warm in Winter 
     and Cool in Summer Act. Currently Arizona can only provide 
     assistance to 6 percent of eligible LIHEAP households. To 
     make matters worse, Phoenix continues to experience extreme 
     heat. In the past month alone we have had 15 days with 
     temperatures at or above 110 degrees. This extreme heat is 
     especially hard on the very young, the elderly and disabled 
     who are on fixed incomes and can no longer afford to cool 
     their homes.

  Arizona Public Service reported that there was a 36 percent increase 
in the number of households having difficulty in paying utility bills 
and an increase of 11,000 families being disconnected compared to a 
year ago. Rising energy and housing costs are placing enormous strains 
on households across Arizona.
  Now, imagine being ill or elderly, having your electricity 
disconnected with temperatures day after day after day being 110 
degrees. That is a serious health problem. But the issue obviously is 
not only in the South.
  In my State there is a newspaper called the Stowe Reporter. This is 
what they say, very briefly, in an editorial:

       It could be New England's own Katrina disaster. Hundreds of 
     homes rendered uninhabitable, families' finances stretched to 
     the limit, some driven away altogether to take

[[Page S6819]]

     shelter with friends or family. But unlike Katrina, this 
     calamity is clearly visible on the horizon and we have months 
     to prepare.
       With home heating oil prices nearly twice what they were 
     one year ago, and no price relief in sight, thousands of 
     Vermonters will be struggling this winter to keep their homes 
     warm. The financial effect of an additional $500 to more than 
     $1,000 on the winter's oil bill will force many to choose 
     between heat and other necessities, such as food.

  So what we are looking at in the northern tier of this country is our 
own Katrina, if you like: people being forced out of their homes, 
people becoming ill, people leaving the northern part of this country 
because they cannot pay these outrageously high energy costs. This is, 
in fact, a life-and-death issue. Unlike hurricanes or tornadoes, you 
are not going to see CNN there. But as my friend from Maine, who is 
just walking in, understands, in her State and in my State, we are 
seeing people struggle in a life-and-death fashion. This is very 
important for people to know, because it does not get a lot of 
publicity, but according to the Centers for Disease Control, over 1,000 
Americans from across the country died from hypothermia in their own 
homes from 1999 to 2002, and those are the latest figures we have 
available.
  In other words, they froze to death because they could not afford to 
heat their homes. How many of these deaths were preventable? Well, 
according to the CDC, all of them were preventable. If people were 
living in homes that were adequately heated, those folks would not have 
died. It is important to understand that it is not only heating oil 
prices that are skyrocketing but electricity prices are also soaring.
  Recently, USA Today ran a headline on its front page that said: 
``Price Jolt: Electricity Bills Going Up.'' According to this article, 
utilities across the United States are raising power prices up to 29 
percent, mostly to pay for soaring fuel costs. In other words, the 
situation that exists in the southern part of the country is that the 
electricity is disconnected because you cannot afford the huge 
increases in your electric bill, and if the temperatures are 110 
degrees in Arizona, Texas, New Mexico, you are in serious trouble.
  Before I yield to my friend from Maine, I did want to mention some 
information in our southern and southwestern States. Due to a lack of 
LIHEAP funding, the State of Texas only provides air conditioning 
assistance to about 4 percent of those who qualify. Recently I received 
a letter from Shawnee Bayer, from the Community Action Committee in 
Victoria, TX. In her letter, Shawnee Bayer told me that LIHEAP funding 
for their elderly and disabled clients ran out on May 1 of this year. 
As a result, they have had to turn away over 500 elderly and disabled 
families seeking assistance with their air conditioning bills.
  According to Ms. Bayer:

       The temperatures in our area have been 100 to 110 degrees 
     for 16 consecutive days. I fear it is going to be very tragic 
     at the current pace we are going with so little funding 
     available. There are so many who need our assistance, like 
     the elderly lady in her 80s who recently almost died due to 
     kidney failure; now she doesn't want to use her air 
     conditioner because she is afraid she won't be able to pay 
     the bill and that we won't have funding to assist her when 
     she needs us.
       She just called me last Thursday and has pneumonia; she 
     could hardly talk. Last year she was placed in the hospital 
     in ICU due to a heat stroke as a result of using only a fan, 
     not the air conditioner. I see children every day who have 
     not eaten because the parents, grandparents and in some cases 
     great grandparents are just trying to keep the electricity 
     on. The electric bills in our area have tripled.

  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator's time has expired.
  The Senator from Maine is recognized.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join the Senator 
from Vermont, my friend and colleague, in discussing the need for 
legislation which we have introduced to increase funding for the low 
income heating assistance program.
  As my colleague from Vermont has described, our citizens in the 
Northeast are facing a crisis this winter. In the State of Maine, 80 
percent of homes rely on home heating oil. The average home in Maine 
uses between 800 and 1,000 gallons of heating oil to get through the 
winter season. My constituents are looking at paying as much as $5,000 
this winter to keep warm. And this is in a State that ranks 37th in per 
capita income. This is a true crisis. It is clear that we need to do a 
great deal to solve the overall energy crisis facing this country.
  We need to produce more, use less, and pursue alternatives. But we 
also need to look for short-term help for our citizens. The legislation 
we have cosponsored, S. 3186, would provide an additional $2.5 billion 
for the low income heating assistance program, known as the LIHEAP 
program.
  Most of our colleagues are pretty familiar with this program. But let 
me remind them that it is a Federal grant program that provides vital 
funding to help very low-income citizens meet their home energy needs. 
The level of funding our legislation would provide would bring the 
program up to the fully authorized amount of $5.1 billion. That is the 
least we can do. Due to record high oil costs, the situation for our 
most vulnerable citizens, particularly the low income and elderly, is 
especially dire.
  In my State of Maine, people face a crisis as they look ahead and try 
to figure out how they are going to stay warm this winter.
  Nationwide, over the last few years, the numbers of households 
receiving assistance under the LIHEAP program increased by 26 percent, 
from 4.6 million to 5.8 million. But during that same period, Federal 
funding increased by only 10 percent. The result is that the average 
grant declined from $349 to $305 at a time of record high prices.
  The large rapid increase in energy prices, combined with lower levels 
of funding available per family, has imposed a tremendous hardship on 
those who can afford it least. Our bill would provide an additional 
$2.5 billion as emergency funding, and the term ``emergency'' could not 
be more accurate, because that is exactly what we face.
  Our Nation is in an energy emergency. Families are already being 
forced to choose between paying for food and paying for heat for this 
coming winter. One woman in Maine told me she has to turn over half of 
her Social Security check to meet the budget plan she is on for meeting 
her obligations to the oil dealer to stay warm--half of her Social 
Security check.
  She literally is deciding if she can afford to fill the prescription 
she needs, can she buy the healthy food she needs. I am worried that we 
are going to see seniors this winter suffering from hypothermia. I am 
worried we are going to see deaths from carbon monoxide from bringing 
in unsafe grills trying to stay warm. I am worried we are going to see 
household fires as people try to stay warm.
  I tell my colleagues, we must act and we must act now. If we can 
increase the funding and help people purchase the fuel they need now, 
it will make a real difference. As the Senator from Vermont has said, 
and he is not exaggerating, this is a matter of life and death. That is 
not an exaggeration. We must act.

  I also want to mention another program that cries out for more 
funding, and that is the Weatherization Program. We are going to 
proceed separately on the weatherization front, but we must not forget 
that if we can help people weatherize their homes, we can help them, on 
average, reduce their fuel consumption by 31 percent. It is one of the 
few things we can do right now that would make a difference this 
winter. I wish to see us double funding for weatherization. The payback 
is enormous. It would make a real difference. Before the current price 
spike, the Department of Energy estimated that weatherization saved the 
average household $358 per year.
  This winter, with the cost of fuel doubled what it was last winter, 
the savings will be that much higher as well. So let's do both. Let's 
give speedy approval to the legislation we have introduced to increase 
the funding for the LIHEAP program so it reaches $5.1 billion. And then 
let us, through the emergency supplemental bill that I hope will be 
coming to the floor, do a substantial increase in the Weatherization 
Program as well. It was so shortsighted of President Bush to propose 
the termination of the Weatherization Program. That makes no sense 
whatsoever.
  The Energy Department's spending bill before the Appropriations 
Committee restores some of the money, but it is still below the level 
that was spent

[[Page S6820]]

on weatherization last winter. We should be greatly increasing funding 
for weatherization as well. I have been working with the Senators from 
Minnesota, both Senator Klobuchar and Senator Coleman, to lead a 
bipartisan effort. My friend from Vermont and the Presiding Officer 
have also signed onto that, calling upon the appropriators to increase 
weatherization funding as well.
  If we could provide an additional $40 million to the Weatherization 
Program, it would help another 15,000 households who are in need of 
weatherization.
  Let me end my comments by saying it is imperative we act both on the 
legislation to increase funding for the LIHEAP program and then proceed 
to also increase funding for weatherization as well. It is the least we 
can do to help some of the most vulnerable citizens avoid a true crisis 
this winter.
  I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SUNUNU. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The ACTING PRESIDENT pro tempore. Without objection, it is so 
ordered.

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