G. K. Butterfield: “I thank the ranking member for his comments. We continue to say that this legislation is a good bill and it is certainly…”

“I thank the ranking member for his comments. We continue to say that this legislation is a good bill and it is certainly deficit neutral. It has been judged that way by the Congressional Budget Office. It is a loan program. It is not a grant program. It will not add to the deficit. It will not add to the debt in any respect. I would like to encourage my colleagues to distinguish this program from the Department of Energy program that is a weatherization program. The weatherization programs, as we all know as Members, are intended to help low-income families, and it is a grant program. This is a loan program whereby Federal dollars are given to an investor-owned utility or to a municipality or to a rural cooperative, and the money is used then, in turn, to make low-interest loans to families who qualify. It is not income based. There are qualifications for the loans, but the family income is not a qualification to qualify for the loan. We must enable the American people to weatherize their homes. Forty percent, in some instances, of their utility bill can be attributed to the loss of heat and air within the homes. And so this program is intended to help install replacement windows and insulation and other things that will make homes more energy efficient. It will pay for itself. It's a good bill. I ask my colleagues to support it.”