[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 24 (Tuesday, February 15, 2011)]
[House]
[Page H802]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           DO NOT CUT LIHEAP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Minnesota (Mr. Ellison) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. ELLISON. Madam Speaker, I come before the House today to talk 
about a critically important program that I think all Americans need to 
know about which is hanging in the balance as we approach this 
continuing resolution. The program I am here to talk about is the Low 
Income Home Energy Assistance Program, also known as LIHEAP.
  LIHEAP is a program commonly believed to be an income-support 
program. But actually, Madam Speaker, it is not an income-support 
program. LIHEAP, which provides energy to low-income families, heating 
oil, things like that, is actually a health program and a program that 
is designed to make sure that citizens do not have to choose between 
heat and eat. You do not have to choose between dinner and a warm room. 
Many of us who are from places like Minnesota, my own home State, but 
also Michigan, Maine, New Jersey, New Hampshire, add to that many 
others--Montana, many others, and even some States that we think of as 
warm-weather States, but in the winter can get cold too--really, people 
depend upon these programs to really survive.
  In my own State, if LIHEAP is cut, many people will simply go 
without. And of course I have statistics here, Madam Speaker; but 
rather than talk about statistics, I want to talk about a man who lived 
in my district who was actually not a LIHEAP recipient but was eligible 
for the program and didn't use it. He didn't have enough money for his 
heat, so what he did was he kind of jerry-rigged some space heaters, 
and he kind of made due. And this caused a fire, Madam Speaker, which 
resulted in his death.
  And when I looked up what really happens, how often people die from 
space heaters, the numbers are not always consistent, but upwards of 32 
percent of all home fires are because of space heaters; and about 75 
percent of all home-fire deaths are due to space heaters, deaths.

                              {time}  1050

  People die when this happens because they don't have the energy 
assistance that they need. And our Congress, right now, under 
Republican majority, is talking about cutting this program even more.
  Now, you think about a winter like this one, Madam Speaker, where 
there have been record snowfalls in many places around our country, and 
it's been cold since October in Minnesota. And the fact is that 
programs that provide LIHEAP funding are already running out of money. 
And if they were drawn back to 2008 spending levels, we would have run 
out of LIHEAP funding in January. In Minnesota it really does not warm 
up until around April. And so this is terrible.
  Madam Speaker, let me tell you, if you look at young people, kids, 
statistics show that if a family does not have to put a bunch of money 
into heating the home the child's diet improves, and the kid has enough 
to eat before he goes to school, which means that that little girl or 
that little boy can sit in the classroom without their stomach growling 
and can actually pay attention to the lesson that's going on because 
their family has some home energy assistance.
  Our seniors are poor. It's about the prescription, or it's about the 
heated room.
  Madam Speaker, it's not right to tell Americans that the wealthiest 
and most well-to-do among us get their tax break extended, and the 
poorest among us, well, they can just go get another blanket. That's 
wrong. We're failing a moral test of our Nation when we do things like 
this.
  Madam Speaker, I want to raise this issue that we consider what we 
are doing to our society. It's not welfare; it's not income support. It 
is a health program. It is a health program designed to make sure that 
Americans don't freeze to death in their own homes. It is a health 
program designed to make sure that Americans don't have to make awful 
decisions about medication, about food, and things like this. It is a 
health program. And it's a program that has done countless amounts of 
good for many, many people that helps seniors, that helps children.
  I'm very proud, Madam Speaker, as I close, to quote a man from my 
State of Minnesota. His name was Hubert H. Humphrey, and he said, The 
moral test of a Nation is how it treats people in the dawn of life, our 
children; people in the twilight of life, our seniors; and people in 
the shadows of life, the poor and underprivileged.
  If we cut low-income energy assistance, we've failed that moral test.

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