James Oberstar: “10,000 years ago the last glacier retreated from the North American continent, but every fall it stages a comeback and…”

“10,000 years ago the last glacier retreated from the North American continent, but every fall it stages a comeback and this year it lasted well into May, when we had 36 inches of ice still on the border lakes in my district with temperatures driven down to 60 below zero. I want to say to my good friend from Ohio, who casually talked about this money going to some bureaucracy, this money goes to real people, people who are old and poor and hurt in the cold weather of northern Minnesota. If the gentleman thinks that is fun, try living up there on $600 a month in a poorly insulated house when an individual has to choose between eating or heating. I resent it. This program has been cut from $900 million in 1981 to a bare $100 million today. The gentleman talks about saving some Elk Hills Oil Petroleum Reserve and some national policy. National policy is people, people who are old and poor and who deserve to be helped, who deserve to have something better than a miserably cold winter and the choice of heating, eating, or suffering to death. We should not have that kind of choice in this society, and this is a paltry amount to be shifting into this program of weatherization and home heating assistance. When we weatherize the home, we cut the heating assistance by 15 percent. We should support this amendment.”