December 18, 1974
Page 40752
FAILURE TO CONSIDER S. 3267
Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I am very disappointed that the Senate will not consider S. 3267, the Standby Energy Authorities Act, during this session. I am particularly distressed because the administration's intransigence has prevented a compromise on this bill.
I had planned to offer an amendment to S. 3267 which provides needed emergency financial assistance to families unable to afford the high price of fuel this winter. The amendment would have been identical in thrust to S. 4209, a bill I introduced earlier this month which has been cosponsored by 17 Senators.
Mr. President, the high cost of home heating fuel is a very real problem for low- and moderate- income families. Winter has already struck in many parts of the country. And people in many States are already struggling to keep warm.
Officials in my State have already reported that nearly 300 families have called them in the past 3 weeks in need of money to pay for fuel.
Mr. President, the inability to pay for heating fuel is a very human problem.
It is a retired woman in Portland, Maine, who recently wrote to tell me how difficult it was for her to afford to heat two rooms in her home and buy enough to eat on her monthly income of $132 from social security.
It is a pregnant mother in Maine with two children who seeks help from the State energy office because her $2,600 a year income does not allow enough to pay for fuel.
It is an unemployed worker in my State who needs heating oil now but cannot afford it – and does not qualify for any public assistance at all.
It is a disabled husband with a wife and four children who has no money at all to pay for heat.
These examples are not fantasies. They are actual cases handled by the energy office in Maine.
The problem of high fuel costs, however, is not restricted to one State or one region. Recently, my Subcommittee on Intergovernmental Relations surveyed the directors of State energy offices throughout the Nation.
While the results of that survey are not yet complete, one thing is clear – that most State energy officials believe the high price of fuel to be the most serious problem their States will face this winter.
Under the provisions of the amendment I had hoped to offer, the Federal Government would have assisted States that developed programs to provide heating assistance to families whose annual incomes are $8,000 or less. Funds would have been apportioned among the States according to the number of families in each State earning $8,000 or less and the State's relative temperature.
Mr. President, I am distressed that the administration's intransigence on the standby authorities bill has ended all hope that my proposal will be enacted in this session. I intend to reintroduce it when Congress returns next month.