Haley Stevens: “I yield the floor. I don't know who is to come next. I don't want to charge any time to the pending measure. That was…”

“I yield the floor. I don't know who is to come next. I don't want to charge any time to the pending measure. That was the understanding. So I will just let the time run for a minute. I will again remind the Senate that the money that is in the bill that is before us, the conference report that is before us, that its emergency funding will not survive another conference. It will only survive this conference because the money that was predicted to be available from income from the sale of oil and gas leases in ANWR--and the OMB did increase its estimate from $2.5 billion to $5 billion. However, they did not increase that for budget purposes. They confirmed the fact that it would come in. So we have allocated that money under this bill, particularly to LIHEAP, to low-income housing assistance. That cannot survive another conference if ANWR is deleted. So for those people who want that money, and it has been pointed out that is an enormous increase due to the situation that exists because of the fantastic increase in home heating costs, it does not have to be spent. It is there in reserve to be spent. We do not mandate that they spend that money. We make it available to them on an emergency basis if it is necessary, and it may well be necessary through the balance of this winter.…”