Patrick Leahy: “In our State, cold weather is not a rarity, it is a fact of life, especially this time of the year. The thermometer on…”

“In our State, cold weather is not a rarity, it is a fact of life, especially this time of the year. The thermometer on my front steps goes down to 20 below zero. Many times there is no mercury showing because it has gone below that. Now, that is not theoretical cold, that is cold you die from. I know what it has cost us in filling the tank for my own furnace this year, and I wonder how many people who are not privileged to have the kind of salaries all of us do, how they possibly do it. It is not a matter of just help; this is a matter of life or death. It is not a matter of just comfort. We are not talking about the weather being in the fifties and perhaps you can just put on more sweaters or more coats; we are talking about it being 5 or 10 and 15 and 20 degrees below zero, or even today in Burlington, VT, it began at zero. In those situations you die if you don't have heat. It is not a question of being comfortable; you die. It is as simple as that. You die. There are a lot of people who cannot afford this.”