Xavier Becerra: “Mr. Chairman, I was listening to the debate and watching the debate from my office when I was compelled to come here…”

“Mr. Chairman, I was listening to the debate and watching the debate from my office when I was compelled to come here, because, as I remember, during the debate on the appropriations bill dealing with education programs, with programs for our working men and women to protect them at the workplace, for health programs for seniors, we made dramatic cuts in some of those programs, in some cases eliminating programs. For example, we cut out every single dollar that we put in to subsidize seniors' payments of their home heating bills during the times in the winter when it is very expensive, especially on the east coast, to try to heat your home. This is for families, mostly seniors, as I said before, who are on subsidized incomes already and who are finding it very difficult to pay their bills, very expensive heating bills. We saw the case in Chicago recently where 400 people died because they had problems keeping their places cool enough to stay there and live, 400 people dying. We cut dramatically into those programs, in some cases eliminating.”