LIPEAP

Floor Speech

LIHEAP -- (Senate - July 16, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am very pleased to join the Senator from Vermont, my friend and colleague, in discussing the need for legislation which we have introduced to increase funding for the low income heating assistance program.

As my colleague from Vermont has described, our citizens in the Northeast are facing a crisis this winter. In the State of Maine, 80 percent of homes rely on home heating oil. The average home in Maine uses between 800 and 1,000 gallons of heating oil to get through the winter season. My constituents are looking at paying as much as $5,000 this winter to keep warm. And this is in a State that ranks 37th in per capita income. This is a true crisis. It is clear that we need to do a great deal to solve the overall energy crisis facing this country.

We need to produce more, use less, and pursue alternatives. But we also need to look for short-term help for our citizens. The legislation we have cosponsored, S. 3186, would provide an additional $2.5 billion for the low income heating assistance program, known as the LIHEAP program.

Most of our colleagues are pretty familiar with this program. But let me remind them that it is a Federal grant program that provides vital funding to help very low-income citizens meet their home energy needs. The level of funding our legislation would provide would bring the program up to the fully authorized amount of $5.1 billion. That is the least we can do. Due to record high oil costs, the situation for our most vulnerable citizens, particularly the low income and elderly, is especially dire.

In my State of Maine, people face a crisis as they look ahead and try to figure out how they are going to stay warm this winter.

Nationwide, over the last few years, the numbers of households receiving assistance under the LIHEAP program increased by 26 percent, from 4.6 million to 5.8 million. But during that same period, Federal funding increased by only 10 percent. The result is that the average grant declined from $349 to $305 at a time of record high prices.

The large rapid increase in energy prices, combined with lower levels of funding available per family, has imposed a tremendous hardship on those who can afford it least. Our bill would provide an additional $2.5 billion as emergency funding, and the term ``emergency'' could not be more accurate, because that is exactly what we face.

Our Nation is in an energy emergency. Families are already being forced to choose between paying for food and paying for heat for this coming winter. One woman in Maine told me she has to turn over half of her Social Security check to meet the budget plan she is on for meeting her obligations to the oil dealer to stay warm--half of her Social Security check.

She literally is deciding if she can afford to fill the prescription she needs, can she buy the healthy food she needs. I am worried that we are going to see seniors this winter suffering from hypothermia. I am worried we are going to see deaths from carbon monoxide from bringing in unsafe grills trying to stay warm. I am worried we are going to see household fires as people try to stay warm.

I tell my colleagues, we must act and we must act now. If we can increase the funding and help people purchase the fuel they need now, it will make a real difference. As the

Senator from Vermont has said, and he is not exaggerating, this is a matter of life and death. That is not an exaggeration. We must act.

I also want to mention another program that cries out for more funding, and that is the Weatherization Program. We are going to proceed separately on the weatherization front, but we must not forget that if we can help people weatherize their homes, we can help them, on average, reduce their fuel consumption by 31 percent. It is one of the few things we can do right now that would make a difference this winter. I wish to see us double funding for weatherization. The payback is enormous. It would make a real difference. Before the current price spike, the Department of Energy estimated that weatherization saved the average household $358 per year.

This winter, with the cost of fuel doubled what it was last winter, the savings will be that much higher as well. So let's do both. Let's give speedy approval to the legislation we have introduced to increase the funding for the LIHEAP program so it reaches $5.1 billion. And then let us, through the emergency supplemental bill that I hope will be coming to the floor, do a substantial increase in the Weatherization Program as well. It was so shortsighted of President Bush to propose the termination of the Weatherization Program. That makes no sense whatsoever.

The Energy Department's spending bill before the Appropriations Committee restores some of the money, but it is still below the level that was spent on weatherization last winter. We should be greatly increasing funding for weatherization as well. I have been working with the Senators from Minnesota, both Senator Klobuchar and Senator Coleman, to lead a bipartisan effort. My friend from Vermont and the Presiding Officer have also signed onto that, calling upon the appropriators to increase weatherization funding as well.

If we could provide an additional $40 million to the Weatherization Program, it would help another 15,000 households who are in need of weatherization.

Let me end my comments by saying it is imperative we act both on the legislation to increase funding for the LIHEAP program and then proceed to also increase funding for weatherization as well. It is the least we can do to help some of the most vulnerable citizens avoid a true crisis this winter.

I yield the floor and suggest the absence of a quorum.

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