Glenn English: “Mr. Speaker, I rise as a long-time strong supporter of the LIHEAP program to support this motion. LIHEAP, indeed, has…”

“Mr. Speaker, I rise as a long-time strong supporter of the LIHEAP program to support this motion. LIHEAP, indeed, has been underfunded for many, many years, and it is an important priority for this year to put more funding into LIHEAP. Let me reiterate the point that the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Young) has already made, under the President's budget, he had proposed only to fund LIHEAP to the tune of $1.1 billion, plus $300 million for emergency funding. The position that had been worked out on our side of the aisle with some collaboration was that instead, we would put in $1.4 billion for the LIHEAP program, plus $300 million for emergency funding. Mr. Speaker, I think there is a strong case to be made for increasing beyond the $1.4 billion. But let us understand what is really at work here. As the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Goodling) noted, one of the real problems here is that we have a failed energy policy in this country. We are anticipating this winter that energy costs are going to go through the roof; and that is going to have a huge impact on low-income households, seniors and others are going to be forced to choose between heating and eating, as the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Moakley) noted.”