Howard Berman: “We have an assistance program for low-income people to get subsidies on energy. We do not apportion that based on…”

“We have an assistance program for low-income people to get subsidies on energy. We do not apportion that based on population. We focus that on States where cold weather requires people to have extraordinary high heating bills. We have crop subsidy programs and we do not base that on population, but we do base that on areas where the crops are growing. The whole logic of this program is to deal with the--try to assist the States with the costs of dealing, particularly, with the high rates of violent crime. This amendment makes perfect sense. I cannot understand why the formula would be on any other basis, and I urge its adoption.”