Political Quotes

“I yield myself 2 of those 5 minutes. Madam Chair, people want to save money on their energy bills, but not everyone can afford the upfront costs of an energy retrofit. What the Home Star Energy Efficiency Loan Program is designed to do is to help those people participate in the Home Star program. The loan program is also meant to provide a sustainable source of loan funds for years of future energy retrofits across a broad geographic and economic spectrum. The program will reach out to low-income households that would greatly benefit from reduced energy bills. Now, if the Barton amendment is passed, it would severely limit the number of people who could participate in Home Star. Without long-term opportunities for efficiency loans, many low-income households will, literally, be left out in the cold. Home Star will incentivize energy-efficient retrofits. It must also make those retrofits a reality. The loan program offers households a pathway out of crushing utility bills towards a clean energy future. I urge my colleagues to vote ``no'' on the Barton amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.”