[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 126 (Monday, July 28, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Page S7566]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               LOW-INCOME HOME ENERGY ASSISTANCE PROGRAM

  Mr. HATCH. Mr. President, the Senate has voted on a motion to proceed 
to a vote on S. 3186, a bill to provide funding for the Low-Income Home 
Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. I have a long history of 
supporting the LIHEAP program and have voted for almost every increase 
in the program that has been proposed in Congress.
  This vote was different. It was not a vote about making sure our low 
income citizens have the heating and cooling assistance they need 
because they already do under the existing program. There is $100 
million still left in the program, and most of that money was for 
heating last winter. So what's the emergency here? On top of the 
existing surplus in the program, the program will also be fully funded 
for the coming winter when we pass a continuing resolution which will 
keep all the government programs running at the level they were funded 
last year. So let's not pretend that LIHEAP is not in place or that it 
won't be funded for the coming year.
  Each year the Congress appropriates the Government funding needs 
through 13 appropriations bills. Each bill is handled by separate 
subcommittees of the full Senate Committee on Appropriations. I applaud 
the Appropriations Committee and its subcommittees, because they have 
done a good job of preparing and marking up their various 
appropriations bills.
  But there's just one problem. Our majority leader has announced that 
we will not be passing any of those bills this year, and instead will 
be passing the continuing resolution I just referred to. Why this 
announcement? Why can't we pass any appropriations bills this year? 
Well, I can tell you Mr. President that the Republicans have many 
amendments prepared for those bills that would allow our Nation to 
produce more domestic oil, but the anti-oil extremists calling the 
shots in the Democrat Party cannot allow votes on finding more oil 
because they know such votes would succeed.
  Unfortunately for the Democrat Party, the poor are beginning to wake 
up that the liberals they have always looked to are behind the war on 
the poor. By war on the poor I refer to the movement by the anti-oil 
extremists to close off every good domestic oil resource, which is a 
direct cause of the high energy prices Americans face.
  Democrats in Congress have been forced to choose between the very 
well funded extreme anti-oil interests and the poor because on energy 
prices there is no compromise between the two. The Democrats have begun 
to recognize the position they are in, and were trying to have it both 
ways with this vote.
  Let's be honest about why the Senate brought up this amendment. It is 
because the Democrats are trying to please the anti-oil extremists by 
not allowing any votes on oil drilling or on appropriations bills. At 
the same time the Democrats must pretend that they haven't really sold 
out the poor by their policies that force high gas prices.
  I am not inclined to play their political game and support their 
effort to shift the debate away from unlocking our nation's energy 
potential. And I particularly was not inclined to support this vote, 
because the proposal busted the budget without providing any additional 
benefit to LIHEAP.




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