Transportation, Treasury, Housing and Urban Development, the Judiciary, the District of Columbia, and Independent Agencies Appropriations Act, 2006

TRANSPORTATION, TREASURY, HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT, THE JUDICIARY, THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, AND INDEPENDENT AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (Senate - October 19, 2005)

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Ms. COLLINS. Madam President, first, let me thank my colleague and friend from Rhode Island for accommodating my schedule and for his usual graciousness. It has been a great pleasure to work with him on an initiative that is so important to low-income families in our country and that is increasing the funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program. We are proposing to increase the funding to the amount authorized by the energy legislation that was signed into law a couple of months ago, so we are proposing to bring it to the fully authorized level of $5.1 billion.

Madam President, I am sure it is very similar in your State. When I go home to Maine, as I do every weekend, the No. 1 issue that people talk to me about is the high cost of energy. They have expressed over and over their fear that they simply will not be able to afford the cost of heating oil for their homes this winter. The cost increases have been enormous. They are, in part, attributable to the two hurricanes that we have endured, and that is why I view this as part of the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and Rita.

Right now in Maine, we have already had some nights that have plunged below freezing. In Maine, 78 percent of all households use home heating oil to heat their homes. Currently, the cost of home heating oil is more than $2.50 per gallon. I actually paid $2.72 per gallon recently. That is a considerable increase, 60 cents or more a gallon, over last year's already high prices.

These high prices greatly increase the need for assistance. More low-income families are going to be in dire straits. Moreover, as it increases, it has an impact on the amount of money that can be given out, so we have a pot of money that is going to have to be spread over a larger population at a time when prices are soaring.

Last year, there was an average benefit in Maine of $480. This year it is expected that the benefit would have to be cut to $440. That would purchase only 173 gallons of oil, far below last year's equivalent benefit of 251 gallons, and not nearly enough, of course, to go through a Maine winter. To purchase the same amount of oil this year as last, Maine would need an additional $10.8 million in LIHEAP funds.

This really is a choice, for many low-income families in our country, of buying the home heating oil or natural gas that they need to keep warm or putting adequate food on the table or buying much-needed prescription drugs. Surely, in a country as prosperous as ours, no low-income family should be forced to make those kinds of choices.

I urge support for the amendment offered by the Senator from Rhode Island and myself, and again I thank the Senator for his courtesy in yielding to me.

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