John Kerry: “this amendment is an emergency response to the natural gas shortage and crisis that has raised prices all across the…”

“this amendment is an emergency response to the natural gas shortage and crisis that has raised prices all across the country. In the South, there has been a 17-percent increase in electricity costs. In the Midwest, there has been a 69-percent natural gas increase. And in New England, the heating oil prices have gone up 29 percent. The industry tells us that there will be an average of a $600 increase per family. For people on fixed incomes, when you add that to the cost of tuition increases, gasoline increases, and health care increases, it is unaffordable. The National Energy Assistance directorate has told us that 39 percent of those individuals in the country who are low income went without medical care in order to be able to pay those bills. Twenty percent didn't pay their rent or their mortgage. I ask colleagues to approve this $3.1 billion emergency LIHEAP allocation.”