Haley Stevens: “our country needs additional funding for LIHEAP. Temperatures in rural Alaska have reached 62 below zero. These…”

“our country needs additional funding for LIHEAP. Temperatures in rural Alaska have reached 62 below zero. These temperatures have frozen heating systems and water and sewer lines in many of our villages. Alaskans are struggling this winter and paying over $5 per gallon to heat their homes. In fact, the mayor of a North Slope community told me that at one point, a village paid $8 per gallon. While the home heating picture is not as bleak in other parts of our country, all Americans are feeling the effects of high energy prices. In December, I tried to address this situation by including emergency LIHEAP funding in the Defense Appropriations Bill. Our bill created a new revenue stream by authorizing oil and gas development in the Coastal Plain of ANWR--and used this revenue to provide funding for several emergencies. Our bill included $2 billion for LIHEAP and funding for the hurricane victims, first responders, and farmers. The ANWR provision would have created a long-term, dedicated funding stream for home energy assistance. Most of my colleagues on the other side of the aisle successfully filibustered consideration of this package under the guise of a Rule XXVIII violation. They then noted to remove the ANWR provision and the funds it provided from the bill, including emergency funding for LIHEAP. It was a sad display of good policy dying a quick death at the hands of partisan politics.…”