 Well good afternoon everyone. It's great to be here today with our congressional delegation to announce an unprecedented investment in Vermont's low-income home energy assistance program, also known as LIHEAP. As a result of changes in legislation, this year Vermont will receive an additional $28.3 million. On top of the $20.7 million we normally see in our block grant for a total of 49 million for LIHEAP. This increase is due to Senator Leahy, Senator Sanders, and Congressman Welch, who work incredibly hard to protect our most vulnerable each and every day. We're grateful for their efforts and I want to thank them directly for all they do to help us back home in Vermont. The Department for Children and Families administers the LIHEAP program, which helps low-income households with heating costs, weatherization, energy efficiency, and any crisis involving energy in their homes. With this increase in funding, we'll make sure eligible families have a warm home this winter. These additional dollars will allow us to do a number of things to help the vulnerable. For example, we'll be able to increase fuel benefits. Provide more money for weatherization services, including furnace repair and replacement, which could help about 260 more households. We'll increase the number of gallons or cords of wood you can receive under the crisis fuel program. Provide a one-time check of $400 to those who qualify to offset the cost of electric heat benefiting 18,000 households. And a one-time check for $120 to renters whose heating costs are included in their rent, which will benefit 2,250 households. We'll also shift the wood benefit from fall to spring to give families who heat with wood the opportunity to buy when costs are lower so they get more for their money. These federal LIHEAP funds are included in the American Rescue Plan Act, or APA, and it's coming at a good time as we head into winter because we don't want to leave anyone behind. Individuals and families can apply through the DCF website or through a paper application available by mail or in person at any DCF district office. People can also get assistance by applying at any of our community action agencies or at your local agency on aging. Our goal here today is to make sure that if you're a Vermonter eligible for these funds, you know how to get them. We're joined today by DCF Deputy Commissioner Tricia Tayo and Nicole Tuziat Yant for the LIHEAP program and by Tom Donahue, the Executive Director of Brock, representing all of our community action agencies. We rely on our dedicated state staff and our partnerships with community providers like Community Action to reach Vermonters, to get the work done, to make sure that no eligible Vermonter goes without heat. And now I'd like to turn this over to my good friends, Senator LIHEAP, to say a few words. Governor, thank you very much. It's good to be here with you and my friends Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch and the others. I think all of us as Vermonters know how quickly cold weather comes to Vermont. I remember flying back one day to Washington and people were complaining cold it was, it was 25 degrees and I said well it was 25 degrees in my house so I left middle sex to sport and they said well that's not very cold. I said 25 degrees below zero, which is not unusual. You know we're going to be taking very soon Vermont taking wood off the wood piles, adjusting thermostats, turning up the heat and not just for comfort but for many it's going to be absolutely vital for the health. It's 40 years ago when we established a low-income home energy assistance program or LIHEAP. I remember how proud I was when I first voted for that, never realizing how important it would become and as chairman of the Appropriations Committee I have supported increases of the program's funding. I've worked to increase its funding by 110 million, direct more than 5 billion supplemental funding to the COVID program but those are just numbers. The reality is what the people who run it and do it, they're the ones who get the money out. Last year 39,000 Vermont households were able to receive a combined 19 million in heating assistance and now as the governor said with the money even more are going to be able to be helped. Here's another way they'll be helped, not just keep your home warm but replace old fuel tanks, weatherize your home, so take less to keep it warm. Community actions agencies like Capstone here in Central Vermont can walk people through that application program. Nobody should have to choose between heating their home, putting food on the table or getting the modifications they need. We know there's increasing fuel prices but LIHEAP can help. Vermont homes are some of the oldest in the country. Many were built long before energy efficiency techniques. I was sick of that as we drove by the house I grew up in across the street. That was built in the 1800s. You have to make them more energy efficient. I'm grateful for the work of efficiency for Vermont, the community action agencies, the state of Vermont, neighborhood heat squad. These are important so we're working on other things in Washington as you know. Senator Sanders has been directing so hard the Build Back Better Plan. We have programs like LIHEAP, Department of Energy's Motherization Assistance Program that Peter and Bernie and I have always worked on. The Infrastructure Investments Act that's passed to Senate this summer included historic three and a half billion dollars for LIHEAP. So the money will be there. Before I go I just leave one thing for Vermonters. I request one thing of Vermonters. If you need help please apply. Don't think the help may or may not be there. It will be there so apply and don't be too proud to accept some assistance. After all it's Vermonters taking care of Vermonters. We can do it. We know what a winter is like. We know the heating that can be done. So if you need the help apply for it and with that I'll turn to the man who has his hand on the budget, my good friend Bernie Sanders. All yours Bernie. Let me thank Governor Scott for organizing this and for the announcements he has made today. Thanks Senator Leahy, the chairman of the Appropriations and congressman Peter Welch for the great work that they are doing for Vermont and the nation. Sometimes we forget but we shouldn't. We are the wealthiest nation in the history of the world. In a wealthy nation there should not be folks who are struggling to stay warm in the winter time and in our state a very significant percentage of the people who receive LIHEAP benefits are elderly, people living on fixed incomes, people who have severe disabilities, young families with children and we have a moral responsibility to make sure that nobody in the state of Vermont goes cold in the winter time and that is in fact of what we have done. I'm very proud that with the help of Senator Leahy and Congressman Welch in the American Rescue Plan Act we added an additional $4.5 billion to LIHEAP bringing the total funding amount to $8.25 billion. In other words we increased LIHEAP funding by over 50% and that means as the Governor just indicated we now have the opportunity in the state to make sure that far more people receive the benefits that they need and they receive the generous benefits that they are entitled to. It seems to me if I could pivot just a bit that we are in a pivotal moment in American history and there's a great debate going on in Washington right now and that is whether or not we have a government in our democratic society which represents all of the people including the most vulnerable people that is the elderly people with disabilities the children or we have a government which represents the wealthy and the powerful and as we speak right now you have special interests spending hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars to make sure that we do not do what needs to be done for working families and for lower income people but I'm very proud of the fact that we have substantially increased LIHEAP funding. I'm proud of the work that the government here in Vermont and many of the CAP agencies are doing to get that money out and I urge everybody who's entitled to these programs to take advantage of them. Thank you and now let me introduce the one and the only the best representative that Vermont has in the U.S. House of Representatives. Bernie at his high praise the best one in Vermont I really appreciate that and we've got the two best senators not only in Vermont but in the nation and Governor Scott you are doing a great job we really appreciate you being here in inviting us thank you very much it's been said about LIHEAP but I want to just make a couple of points nobody who is in a economically precarious position has any control over the cost of home heating oil but they all need to turn up the thermostat when it gets cold and energy prices are going up which makes the urgency of the distribution of LIHEAP funds all the more important we can't let folks who don't have any control over energy prices and who don't have any control over how cold it gets those folks have got to stay warm and them staying warm can't come at the expense of them not being able to get the medication they need or the food they need and all three of us here and the governor have been long time strong supporters of the low-income heating assistance program and we've been able to get a lot of support in congress for that by working at it every year but also by recognizing that it includes providing assistance to folks who are ever subjected to high heat because in the western states it allows for some cooling which is the threat to people on low incomes so there's an acknowledgement here that this challenge we face is getting even more severe with the severe weather and the extreme heat that we're seeing as well as the consistent winters of cold weather where our folks really absolutely depend on access to funds through the LIHEAP program the second point I want to make is that the only way this is effective is when we have an infrastructure within the state and within our community action agencies that is getting out the word to people about the availability of this and then doing the hard work of implementation getting people to sign up making it easy for them to do it but also through the the the programs about energy efficiency and tightening up the homes so this has been a long-standing commitment that's had long-standing bipartisan support through republican and democratic governors and through the congressional delegation the third point I want to make sort of bears a little bit on what Bernie was talking about this legislation that is before congress now the build-back better plan has a very significant component to finally start addressing climate change and yes we're always going to have to help folks with their energy bill but we have to start addressing the big challenges about climate and that includes making our buildings more efficient our homes more efficient and among other things in the build-back better program there is money for energy efficiency that creates incentives for people to be able to afford to make their homes tighter and that would include folks who own homes and shelters as well because the bottom line here is we have got to have a response which LIHEAP is to the immediate urgency of paying the fuel bill so you keep warm but we have to it's long overdue to have a response to the severe weather incidents that are getting even more extreme which is one of the reasons why I so strongly support the build-back better bill with its first and only low and long overdue emphasis on climate issues thank you at this point we'll open up to questions pass them off on to them that that a recipient can get into this program you talked about the higher fuel prices maybe 50 percent higher than than last year at this time so is this money going to go as far yeah I mean the prices are petroleum prices are increasing but but with this additional money comes more opportunity I don't know if Tom or any one of the three of you and I want to say that the additional funds will go farther there is never enough as we always say there's never enough money at the end of the month so it's always difficult to serve the vermoners even with the amazing work that these gentlemen have done to fund the LIHEAP program over the years but there is always so much more to do that the additional funds will go a long way to addressing that but regardless of the pricing going up or not it won't ever be quite enough but it'll start to make the progress we need in the direction of energy savings and assisting those in crisis on a regular basis I have a saying that the foundation of a great community is only as strong as how we treat our most vulnerable and I know the governor's had as part of a tenant of his platform and these gentlemen of course it's part of the way they operate in their lives to make sure that vulnerable vermoners are uh that we watch out for them in Vermont the farmers' almanacs says it's going to be a really long cold winter so you know there are people in need the pricing will definitely maybe reduce how far it stretches but the amount of funds will go so much farther that I'm actually not concerned about that as a factor it's really the most important thing as the governor indicated is getting the word out to make sure that we're reaching the vermoners and as the senator said to make sure that people don't hesitate to apply because the funding is there to assist and we at the community action level we're the boots on the ground we're we're ready to assist but we do have to make that connection to vermoners in need and we don't want them to hesitate to reach out to us if they are in need because these funds are so critical these are vital funds and I I just want to thank you all and applaud you for providing this additional assistance to to the folks that are you know going to be in need this long winter as we might anticipate and what Tom says we all agree you know there's not an inch between any one of us or anything else of this but it emphasized one thing to the extent that you have the ability to upgrade uh with an insulation do the things are necessary to make your homes more uh heat efficient right take advantage of that take advantage of it I just want to say I'm in at the base of the ski industry in Rutland it's just called Killington as you know that long winter is not always a bad thing if you're in the ski industry but any anything we're missing do you want to add okay thank you Governor I did want to mention though that um the whole situation that we're dealing with with fun with uh assistance assistance for people in need is exacerbated by the pandemic and because of our unfortunate uh delta variant which is making this pandemic languish I just want to be clear that you know that there are more Vermonters in need now than ever and that you know we don't have um we haven't seen the end of it yet and there are new Vermonters in need many who have lost employment over time maybe their businesses closed they've been furloughed and it's not just folks of low income that might have been the typical folks that we're serving but we're seeing a lot of new Vermonters in need of these funds so the timing for the addition couldn't come at a more important time for Vermon since Brock community action thank you but I think I believe you're representing all the community action yes and so thank you that I have we have a partnership the Vermon community action partnership where five community action organizations very efficient and effective somewhat nimble being only five of us we cover the entire state and we're really the implementers for many of these state programs so when these great individuals pass legislation that create the funding and the programs where the boots on the ground it gets it to the Vermonters and uh you know the funding for fuel for instance governor one of the great things about that is the funding doesn't go to the individual it goes to the fuel dealer goes to the business it delivers the fuel or delivers the water delivers the palace so it's all almost as an economic engine of its own in addition to support local business governor what happens um if there's money left over at the end of the year in some of these programs we were we're basically doubling it essentially what happens if there is leftover money well again I think that's uh that's a federal question I'm not sure whether it gets caught back or stays in the program does anyone maybe we have the answer right here we're allowed to carry forward 10 of the funds and anything else that is left over would be returned next October but we do have some flexibilities in the spring to do things like the spring fuel the spring would benefit which will help keep those funds in vermont any other questions typically we're here for like two hours so can we try a different topic um depends what the topic is sure I just had a question for senator sanders he mentioned this being a pivotal time and our us history and we all know you're working on the infrastructure bill the social bill I'm wondering how confident you are that when all is said and done that you're going to have a bill that addresses the needs that you set out in the beginning well uh senator lehi and congressman welch are working hard on these bills as well um what has been very interesting to me in this process is poll after poll shows overwhelming support for what we are trying to do the american people understand that the wealthy and large corporations who in many instances are not paying their fair share of taxes should pay their fair share of taxes overwhelmingly popular that's what people believe in fairness the american people understand that there's something pretty crazy when we pay in some cases 10 times more for prescription drugs than our neighbors in canada or in europe the american people by huge numbers want us to take on the pharmaceutical industry and lower the cost of prescription drugs in america poll after poll shows that the american people believe that it is absurd that we have elderly people in vermont and throughout this country you have no teeth in their mouth they can't afford hearing aids they can't afford eyeglasses people want to expand medicare they want to expand child care in this state i think as we all know the average cost of child care is 15 000 so if you're making 40 000 50 000 how do you afford child care that's for one kid two it's almost impossible we want to create a situation where no family in america is paying more than 70 percent of their limited income make universal make pre-k universal and free deal with climate changes as congressman welch indicated so this is a very very popular piece of legislation sadly we have zero republican support and at this particular moment we have two members of the democratic caucus and we need all 50 who have not yet come on board but to answer your question i believe given the enormous support that this legislation has from the american people from the president of the united states from some 96 percent of the democratic caucus in both the house and the senate yeah we are going to pass this and this will be the most consequential piece of legislation for working families for the environment that we have seen in the modern history of this country if i can't sell this in west virginia i can't go toward do you think maybe he needs to broaden his horizon a little bit well it's funny that you mentioned that bob i just heard about poll after poll in west virginia which shows that all of these traditions not surprising west virginia is a poor state they are enormously popular so trust me we are working on this bill like 24 7 and we are going to get it done and we're going to have senator manchin senator cinema on board as well on the senator sanders have you spoken to either senator manchin or senator cinema since your last press conference where you briefly addressed there is you know it is and an issue of such consumments president of the united states is working very hard on this the majority leader in the senate uh chakchuma is working hard on that nancy pelosi and the house is working on it everybody is working hard on it the political problem you have is in the senate we got 50 votes that's it all right so every single person has got to be on board peter welch has the luxury of having a three-vote majority and a 435 member body they got a problem as well so this is not easy this is not easy but there's everybody knows the enormity of the stakes involved uh and we are going to pass it in your press conference sorry to hammer on this but in your press conference last week you asked for more specifics from senators manchin and cinema about why they are opposed have you received word on those we have making progress in that area i think you may have seen that the white house today made a correct point that i know senator schuma feels the same way i suspect speaker pelosi does is this thing has dragged on month after month uh and uh we've got to get this done so there's a sense of urgency now and i suspect you'll see some action uh in the near term future senator lehi majority leader schumer said yesterday or today that he's going to hold a vote next week on the on your voting rights bill the john louis voting rights bill uh it may not get any republican support is this a bill that it's worth uh dumping the filibuster rule in order to pass it well there are no more things that might uh change the filibuster rule certainly we're going to uh lift in the debt limit to be one of those the fact is people are to vote for what is right i get so tired of somebody said well you know this might hurt me politically in my first three months i was in the senate at that time the majority view in vermont was in favor of the vietnam war no member of our congressional delegation had ever opposed it or voted against it we had a pivotal vote coming up and we had a large new large at that time newspaper which actually had influence they told me i'd never be reelected if i voted against it the money for the vietnam war was cut off by a one vote margin mine as the newest member of the committee i never had any question my mind it was the right thing to do and i tell some senators in both parties look at what is the right thing to do what's the right thing to do senator senators absolutely correctly talks about the popularity the polls that he's talking about that has a virtually equal number of republicans and democrats who support these issues so let's vote on let's do what's right for the american people and certainly in the senate with six year terms people are to be willing to do that nobody owns a seat there or in the house but you do owe responsibility to your state not to the media public opinion polls but to what is best for your state and i'd urge house members and senate members in both parties to vote for those things are best for their states because uh bernie and peter are absolutely correct these are issues that the vast majority of americans across the political spectrum throughout the country support them why the hell don't we get down there and vote for thank you sorry for the language language before in this building so is that a i wasn't quite sure about your answer is that a yes that the voting rights bill was so important that if you have to dump the filibuster that's what happens if it was necessary on that one bill uh yes but we're not going to do this on a peace bill basis you know i i voted more on filibuster reform than any member of the us and i voted to change the filibuster rule on different occasions certainly we should do it on debt limit but the john louis a bill basically has passed almost unanimously our republicans and democrats in the past who can be against voting reform that ensures everybody gets a chance to vote look what we do here in vermont in fact i got i won't say which junior senator from texas said this but uh uh senator cruz was complaining in judiciary committee that we want to change this to elect democrats i said look at vermont vermont has the most open voting possible uh you can vote right at the last minute you don't need an excuse to uh for mail in ballots and you say this is just for democrats we elect a republican governor and a democratic lieutenant governor he did not have a response i said incidentally they're both very very good okay um i think that does it thank you very much for coming in