James M. Jeffords: “I rise to cosponsor the amendment offered by the senior Senator from Pennsylvania and commend him for his tireless…”

“I rise to cosponsor the amendment offered by the senior Senator from Pennsylvania and commend him for his tireless efforts on behalf of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The amendment we are considering shifts $425 million from government consulting accounts into LIHEAP and other vital programs, such as the Maternal and Child Health Block Grants. I am particularly pleased that this amendment will restore full funding--$1.48 billion--of LIHEAP in fiscal year 1995. My colleagues may recall that Congress already appropriated this amount last fall. But earlier this year, when President Clinton released his budget proposal for fiscal year 1995, he proposed cutting LIHEAP funding in half. The Budget Committee restored about 70 percent of the cut when it reported Senate concurrent Resolution 63. This amendment restores the rest. The administration claims that falling fuel prices justify steep reductions in a program already cut by 30 percent since funding for it peaked at $2.10 billion a decade ago. The Labor Committee did its best to disabuse the administration of this view during a reauthorization hearing last week. I will state this as plainly as possible: home energy prices have not fallen. They may not have risen as rapidly as inflation generally, but then again, neither have the incomes of our low-income families--whose ranks have swollen enormously because of the recent recession.”