Jeff Bingaman: “for clarification, this modification merely changes the effective date of the amendment. The amendment I offered will…”

“for clarification, this modification merely changes the effective date of the amendment. The amendment I offered will raise the amount authorized to be appropriated by this Congress for weatherization programs and for low-income home energy assistance programs. Those are programs that help individuals and families around this country who are faced with rising and enormously increased natural gas bills and electricity bills and those who will be faced with substantial increases in those utility bills this summer for air-conditioning purposes. It is important that we increase this authorization level and that we do so right away. It is also important that we appropriate money quickly. I am hoping we will see progress on that front, working with the administration in the next few weeks. I am certainly going to be urging the President and those in the Department of Energy to strongly support an appropriation in this area. This is an important thing to do. This is not a substitute for a comprehensive energy bill by any means. Senator Murkowski has introduced a comprehensive bill. I am working on developing a bill that is also much more broad in its reach and deals with the long-term energy needs of the country. This merely tries to deal with the immediate crisis. It is very important we do this. I am very pleased all Senators have indicated support for this measure. I yield the floor. I know Senator Murkowski wishes to speak on this same subject.…”