American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act of 2008
Floor Speech
AMERICAN HOUSING RESCUE AND FORECLOSURE PREVENTION ACT OF 2008 -- (Senate - June 24, 2008)
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Mr. SANDERS. Mr. President, for a number of months now I have been trying, with the help of both Democrats and Republicans, to bring a LIHEAP bill onto the floor. The reason for that is, with the energy crisis we are now facing and the cost of home heating fuel and electricity escalating, there is no doubt in my mind that both in warm-weather States this summer and cold-weather States next winter, there are going to be people struggling for their lives.
Without air-conditioning, people--old people, frail people, sick people--are going to have a hard time when the temperature gets above 100 degrees. What we are seeing all over this country are unprecedented numbers of homes being shut off from electricity because people cannot pay their bills.
We remember some years back, in Chicago, hundreds and hundreds of elderly people died from heat exhaustion because of the heat in their apartments. We must not allow that to happen again.
LIHEAP, of course, pays electric bills to help people keep their air-conditioning on when the temperature becomes very high. Clearly, in my State of Vermont and throughout the whole northern tier of this country, there is great fear right now--I should tell you that--not just about $4.10-a-gallon gas prices today--people worry about that, but they worry about what is going to happen next winter when the price of home heating fuel is soaring.
So I have tried, and will continue to try, working with people in a bipartisan manner to get a vote on the floor. The simple truth is, we have a lot of support from Republicans and Democrats, progressives and conservatives. People understand the significance of this issue. We are going to do our best to get a vote on the floor as soon as we possibly can.
In the last couple months, we have had large numbers of Republicans and Democrats coming together on bipartisan legislation. We are going to keep up that effort.
So I wished to mention to my friends this is an issue of great importance, I believe, to the American people all over this country. People are fearful about what happens when the weather goes down below zero, and people are worried about what happens when the temperature goes up over 100 degrees.
In this country, we do not want to see people dying of heat exhaustion and we do not want to see people freezing to death. With the cost of home heating fuel soaring, electricity soaring, we have a moral obligation to significantly expand LIHEAP funding. I will continue to do my best to make sure, finally, we get a vote on the floor of the Senate to do that.
Thank you, Mr. President. I suggest the absence of a quorum.
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