http://sanders.senate.gov/newsroom/news/?id=ae9ed939-9991-487b-9816-f31477a09937The American people are hurting. A record-breaking 46 million Americans are living in poverty. Twenty-five million Americans need a full-time job. Nearly one out of four children in this country are living in poverty, and we now have the highest childhood poverty rate of any major advanced country on earth. Senior citizens on fixed incomes haven't received a cost-of-living adjustment in their Social Security benefits for two years in a row, even as healthcare and drug prices have soared. And as Vermonters and other Americans living in northern states are preparing for the winter, the cost of home heating oil is soaring.
We cannot balance the federal budget on the backs of the most vulnerable Americans by slashing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
LIHEAP is a lifeline to dignity for millions of Americans. Last year, it provided the resources necessary to keep a record-breaking 8.9 million American families warm in the winter and cool in the summer - an increase of 35 percent since 2008. Nearly all of federal home heating assistance goes to the elderly, families with pre-school children and the disabled.
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At a time when heating oil prices are projected to skyrocket, and as Vermonters and people throughout the country continue to struggle through the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression, the home heating assistance program must be fully funded at no less than $5.1 billion. In the richest country on the face of the earth, senior citizens, children and the disabled cannot be allowed to go cold this winter.
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