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This winter, the average temperature in Rhode Island was in the low-30s. Without heat, these temperatures are

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   In February, my home State of Rhode Island ran out of LIHEAP funding and had to close its program. I received phone calls from a number of senior citizens who were unable to heat their homes because they ran out of heating oil. To help low-income families address the runaway costs of home energy bills, we need greater funding for this program. This year, Senator Collins and I lead a bi-partisan letter supported by 37 Senators that requested $3 billion for the LIHEAP program in fiscal 2003. I will ask unanimous consent to print a copy of the letter in the RECORD, and I want to thank Senators HARKIN and SPECTER for their strong and consistent support of this program.

   Senators HARKIN and SPECTER increased LIHEAP funding by $300 million in fiscal year 2002. Unfortunately this was not enough to help States address the unmet need. During the winter of 2000/2001, the Nation experienced extraordinarily and unprecedented levels in energy costs along with colder winter temperatures. Many low-income families and senior citizens are still trying to pay off from the energy debt they incurred last winter. While energy prices are lower this year, they are not low by historic

   standards and the prices for natural gas and home heating oil remain at significant costs for many Americans. The recession is also an increasing need for assistance.

   There is something that President Bush can do immediately to help low-income households meet their energy needs. Congress appropriated $300 million in the FY2001 Supplemental Appropriations bill for emergency LIHEAP assistance. For incomprehensible reasons, the President has chosen not to release the emergency LIHEAP funding. And, the President's budget inexplicably requests $300 million less for this program in 2003. Leadership and action are urgently needed to help low-income working families and senior citizens, and I hope the President will take action to release the emergency funds.

   Next year, the Health, Education and Labor and Pensions Committee will begin reauthorizing the LIHEAP program. I want to thank Senator Kennedy for his support of this program. I look forward to working with him and my colleagues to improve the LIHEAP program and increase funding.

   Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I would like to thank Senator Reed for his comments. LIHEAP is a vital heating assistance program for low-income families with children, senior citizens and disabled individuals. My colleagues in the Northeast-Midwest Senate Coalition work tirelessly every year to increase funding for this program and to ensure that these resources get to those most in need.

   There is a terrible reality some low-income households must face each winter, to heat or to eat. Imagine a hard working low-income family that cannot cover the costs of basic necessities in the winter having to ask: Do I heat my home or provide enough food for my children? Or, imagine being an elderly couple and living on a fixed income who has to decide: Do we pay the heating bill or do we buy medicine? In Maine, a majority of our low-income families use heating oil to stay warm. When there is no oil, there is no heat. LIHEAP is the program that keeps the heat on for these families.

   My State of Maine had to lower this year's benefit by $100 in order to serve the 48,000 households that needed assistance. Over 60 percent of the recipient in my State are elderly living on a fixed income of only $10,000 a year. This year, 4,500 additional households applied for assistance. Many of these families needed help because they are unemployed and have exhausted unemployment benefits. While energy prices are lower this year, they are high for low-income Mainers. The average LIHEAP benefit of $338 per household pays for only a little more then one tank of fuel for these families. In Maine, the average annual cost to heat a home with oil is $1,200.

   The LIHEAP program was enacted to respond to the higher fuel prices and severe winters in cold weather States. Its primary focus is to alleviate winter heating crises. Heating homes is expensive. According to the National Fuel Funds Network, at the end of the 2000/2001 winter heating season, at least 4.3 million low-income households were at risk of having their utility service cutoff because of an inability to pay their winter home energy bills. In the Northeast and Midwest, the cost to heat a home is more expensive than to cool a home in the south, and families have to spend a greater amount of their incomes on home heating. LIHEAP households in the Northeast and Midwest spend over $1,200 on residential energy. This is 14 percent of their household income in the Northeast and 18 percent in the Midwest. LIHEAP households spend over twice as much to heat their homes in the winter than it costs to cool a home in the south.

   The current allocation formula acknowledges the important public health role this program serves in cold weather States. Since its enactment, Congress reaffirmed the commitment of this goal. The program has been reauthorized a number of times and Congress maintained its commitment to low-income families faced with high heating bills. It did this by ensuring that no State would receive less than it did when the program was enacted.

   Low-income households will take drastic, and unsafe, measures to try to stay warm in winter when they are in jeopardy of losing heat. When home energy bills are unaffordable in winter, low-income households rely on alternative heating sources such as ovens or space heaters. The National Fire Protection Association reports that house fires show a sharp increase in the cold-weather months. Half of the home heating fires and three-fourths of the home heating fires deaths occurred in the months of December, January, and February. Not being able to afford utilities place low-income households at increased risk to house fires and illness or death.

   We need to increase funding for this vital program. Thirty-seven of my colleagues joined Senator Reed and I in seeking increased appropriations for this program for fiscal year 2003. I look forward to working with Chairman KENNEDY and Ranking Member GREGG on the HELP Committee on reauthorization of this important program.

   Mr. REED. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent the letter to which I referred be printed in the RECORD.

   There being no objection, the letter was ordered to printed in the RECORD, as follows:

   U.S. SENATE,

   Washington, DC, April 2, 2002.
Hon. TOM HARKIN, Chairman
Hon. ARLEN SPECTER, Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations, Senate Committee on Appropriations, Washington, DC.

   DEAR CHAIRMAN HARKIN AND RANKING MEMBER SPECTER: We are writing to express our strong support for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). We appreciate your consistent support for this critical program to help low-income families and senior citizens address high energy burdens. We recognize the difficult choices that you face this fiscal year, however, we believe that the strong and continued growth in households requesting LIHEAP assistance demonstrates that the funding needed for this program has never been greater. We respectfully request that you consider appropriating $3 billion in regular LIHEAP funds for FY2003 and provide advanced appropriations for FY2004.

   LIHEAP is a vital safety net for our nation's low-income households. For many low-income families, disabled individuals and senior citizens living on fixed incomes, home energy costs are unaffordable. Without LIHEAP assistance, low-income families and senior citizens face the impossible choice between paying their home energy bills or affording other basic necessities such as prescription drugs, housing and food. In FY2001, states received $2.25 billion in regular and contingency LIHEAP funding. Despite this historic level of funding, it is estimated that states were only able to serve 17 percent of the 29 million eligible households. Currently, states only have $1.7 billion available in LIHEAP funds for FY2002. Sixteen states estimate that they will be out of funding by the end of March.

   We also request advanced appropriations for the program for FY2004. Advance funding allows states to plan more efficiently, and therefore, more economically. State LIHEAP

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   We look forward to working with you to secure the necessary LIHEAP funding to meet the needs of millions of low-income families. Thank you for your consideration of our request.

   Sincerely,
Jack Reed, Susan M. Collins, Olympia Snowe, Carl Levin, Joseph Biden, Paul D. Wellstone, Debbie Stabenow, Joseph Lieberman, Paul Sarbanes, Charles Schumer, George V. Voinovich, Dick Lugar, James M. Jeffords, Bob Smith, Mark Dayton, Hillary Rodham Clinton, John F. Kerry, Lincoln Chafee, Patrick Leahy, Herb Kohl, Barbara A. Mikulski, Edward Kennedy, Max Baucus, Kent Conrad, Jay Rockefeller, Dick Durbin, Robert Torricelli, Conrad Burns, Christopher Dodd, Mike DeWine, Patty Murray, Gordon Smith, Blanche Lincoln, Byron L. Dorgan, Jeff Bingaman, Ron Wyden, Jean Carnahan, Maria Cantwell, Jon S. Corzine,

   ETHANOL AND THE HIGHWAY TRUST FUND

   Mr. BAUCUS. Mr. President, ensuring necessary and affordable energy supplies, including ethanol-blended motor fuels and other initiatives, is important to the quality of life and economic prosperity of all Americans. Policies to achieve these objectives, however, should not come at the expense of transportation infrastructure improvements.

   By directing 2.5 cents from the sale of gasohol to the highway trust fund, we can begin to alleviate a growing problem for many States--lower highway trust fund contributions and therefore lower highway apportionments.

   Furthermore, a major goal of TEA-21 was to restore the integrity of the highway trust fund by depositing all motor fuel taxes in the trust fund and then spending that money on highway, and some transit, programs. Gasohol's 2.5 cents is the only user tax on vehicle fuel that does not flow into the highway trust fund . I am proud to have it as part of the energy tax package.

   I would especially like to thank Senators HARKIN, WARNER, and the ranking member of the Finance Committee, Senator Grassley for their help in getting the 2.5 cent provision in the energy tax package. But the 2.5 cents is just the beginning.

   I had planned to introduce an amendment, along with Senators HARKIN and WARNER, that would truly make the highway trust fund ``whole.'' This amendment would keep the ethanol subsidy, but make sure that it is the Treasury's General Fund that subsidizes ethanol--not the highway trust fund.

   The ethanol subsidy is good energy policy, good agriculture policy and good tax policy. Yet, ironically, it is the highway trust fund that bears the burden of the subsidy. Since it is good general policy, I believe that the general fund should bear the burden of the subsidy.

   I have been asked by several Senators not to offer an amendment at this time. I have complied with the requests of my colleagues. However, I am fully committed to recouping the 5.3 cents for the highway trust fund at the next possible opportunity.

   I would like to thank Senators WARNER and HARKIN for working so closely with me on this matter. I look forward to continuing that work as soon as possible.

   I am pleased to see progress being made to include the highway trust fund in our collective thoughts as we discuss energy policy.

   Mr. HARKIN. Mr. President, I congratulate the chairman of the Finance Committee, Senator Baucus, for his strong leadership in working to secure the integrity of the highway trust fund and promote the use of ethanol and other renewable fuels like biodiesel. I also commend the hard work of Senator Warner to preserve the trust fund.

   There is no question that a strong highway system is vitally important to the efficiency of our economy. Poor roads mean higher costs to move goods, raising prices to consumers and making us less competitive in a world marketplace. It also means inconvenience to our citizens. The use of fuels containing ethanol or soy is both extremely important to the economy of rural America and good for the environment. The Federal Government wisely promotes ethanol as a fuel through the Tax Code and in other ways. But, on the negative side, against the logic of our country's need, current law provides that increased use of ethanol in fuel means a reduction in the highway

   trust fund and fewer dollars being spent to repair and improve our roads and bridges. I would note that mass transit currently is not adversely impacted under the law.

   I was very pleased to be an original cosponsor of S. 1306, Highway Trust Fund Recovery Act, which provides for the shifting of the excise taxes on alcohol fuels from the general fund to the highway trust fund starting on October 1, 2003. I am very pleased that the measure has been included in the package of tax measures that the Finance Committee proposed to be added to the energy bill along with the very important legislation on biodiesel.

   Enacting the Highway Trust Fund Recovery Act is the first step. The next step is to provide that the highway trust fund be made truly whole for the 5.3 cents not collected for gasohol. We have agreed to not offer a proposal to accomplish that goal during the floor debate of this measure. However, it is my intention to work with Senator Baucus, Senator Warner and others to try to accomplish the goal of passing legislation to fully reimburse the highway trust fund from the general fund as soon as possible.

   Mr. INHOFE. I commend the Senators from Montana and Iowa for their vigorous support of the highway trust fund. Because of their efforts, the measure pending before us, the trust fund, will recoup an additional 2.5 cents per gallon of ethanol currently being deposited into general revenue.

   The Senator from Montana has also been very aggressive at trying to make the trust fund whole with respect to the current 5.3-cent per gallon ethanol subsidy. Although he and I do not agree on how to best address this issue, we are in agreement that the highway trust fund should not pay to subsidize any fuel source. Our surface transportation infrastructure needs are such that we cannot afford to forego any revenue source.

   Certainly one of the key factors in the economic engine that drives our economy is a safe, efficient transportation system. If our economic recovery is going to continue to expand we cannot ignore the immediate and critical infrastructure needs of highways, bridges, and State and local roadways systems.

   I believe this issue is best resolved through the reauthorization of the surface transportation program next year. Furthermore, it is my hope that the final result will be one that can be embraced by all sides in this debate.

   Thus, I will be pulling together a working group of the highway community, the renewable fuels community, the refiners and the agricultural community to begin discussions on how we can make the highway trust fund whole. I ask unanimous consent that a letter from the Renewable Fuels Association be printed in the RECORD.

   (See Exhibit 1.)

   Again, I thank my colleagues from Montana and Iowa for their leadership on this issue and look forward to working with them to devise a permanent solution to this drain on the highway trust fund.

   Mr. JEFFORDS. I applaud Senator Baucus for his efforts to enhance the flow of revenues into the highway trust fund. In particular, his suggestion that the time has come to redirect the 2.5 cents in ethanol tax that is now going into the general fund back to the highway trust fund is both timely and constructive.

   As we reauthorize the surface transportation program over the coming months, I look forward to working with Senator Baucus and others on the broader issue of

   the Nation's shifting fuel mix and the implications of that trend on the highway trust fund.

   Mr. SMITH of New Hampshire. As the Senators know, the compromise fuels package in the Daschle energy bill, which includes my language to ban MTBE and clean up the contamination caused by this gas additive, will also dramatically increase the use of ethanol. This compromise came after lengthy negotiations with several members of the Senate. We all worked in good faith to reach this agreement.

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   However, the increase in ethanol use will, over time, have a negative impact on the highway trust fund due to the ethanol subsidy which exempts ethanol from a good portion of the gasoline tax that pays into the trust fund. This is a concern that virtually all members of the Environment & Public Works Committee share, and it is problem that we will have to address. I believe that reauthorization of TEA-21 is the proper place to fix the trust fund problems caused by the increased ethanol use.

   Between now and the time we introduce TEA-21 reauthorization , I would encourage all parties to work together, in a similar fashion to the way we reached the fuels compromise, in order to reach a consensus on the ethanol tax subsidy. If we work together in good faith, I have little doubt we will find a solution that can be included in reauthorization . I look forward to working my colleagues in that process.

   Mr. DASCHLE. Our Nation's vulnerability to foreign energy production has been brought into bold relief by the continuing turmoil in the Middle East. It is imperative that our Nation take greater strides to promote the use of domestic, renewable fuels as a means of reducing our dangerous dependence on imported oil and strengthening U.S. energy security.

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