[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 12]
[House]
[Page 17071]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                               GAS STAMPS

  (Mr. McDERMOTT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. McDERMOTT. Madam Speaker, a barrel of oil is still more than $120 
and the price Americans are paying for a gallon of gas is $4.20 a 
gallon. Add that to the rising food prices and rising unemployment--
especially long-term unemployment--and the economic climate feels more 
like the dead of winter than the middle of summer.
  Too many Americans are still being forced to choose between food and 
fuel every day either to get to work or look for work. But we can help 
those at the bottom of the economic ladder survive by simply passing 
the Gas Stamps legislation I've introduced. It would provide modest 
assistance to people who need a helping hand to keep their head above 
water. It would provide temporary assistance over a relatively short 
time, a few months, like food stamps, and it would say to the American 
people that we, in Congress, know the first stimulus package was not 
enough and we're prepared to act again.
  Providing those in need with a few hundred dollars a month for a few 
months is a small price to pay so that vulnerable Americans can 
continue to put food on the table and gas in their tank to go to work.
  The American people need and deserve some additional help, and we 
ought to provide it with gas stamps, not the fraud of drilling on the 
coast.

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