Political Quotes

“I want to commend my colleague from Pennsylvania for offering this amendment. It focus particularly on the amendment dealing with LIHEAP, the low-income heating energy assistance program. This is a program which is vital to States like Maine. Over the years, as the Senator from Pennsylvania has pointed out this program has been cut and cut again, and we find our citizens faced with heating bills they cannot pay. Just a couple years ago there was one incident when it was so cold in Maine, there was no fuel available, and they could not pay for the heating fuel. They were, in some cases, breaking up their furniture and using that for firewood in order to heat their homes to keep from freezing. This is a very important program for the State of Maine. I might point out it seems to me we are perhaps not allocating the funds in the correct fashion. We need to be allocating more resources for weatherization programs as opposed to just providing the assistance to purchase the heat and fuel in order to keep warm during winter months or keep cool during the summer months in the more southern climates.”