When it came to building and maintaining Affordable Housing long before covid19. Back in 2020, a rhode island family earning the states Median Income couldnt afford to buy a home at the median price anywhere in the state. It has only gotten worse since then. Across the country, home prices have risen 13. 4 from last year, with the National Median price now at 416,000. In my state, the Rhode Island Association of realtors reports that the median price of homes sold in june 2022, reached an alltime high of 430,000. Thats 11. 7 higher than a year earlier. A large reason that homeownership is out of reach for Many Americans is that the inventory levels are so low. In recent months, sales have dropped as Interest Rates have increased, but nowhere near a balanced market. In a healthy Housing Market, there is usually 6,000 homes for sale at any given time. Right now our country hags less than a threemonth supply of homes and rhode island has less than a twomonth supply. As potential home buyers are priced out of the Housing Market, they remain in the rental market, adding additional pressure to rental prices. According to Apartment List the renting has grown since last summer, in providence, rhode island, rents jumped 23. 8 from last year. When supply is tight and rents go up, its harder for our Vulnerable Community members to afford housing, thats seniors, people with disabilities and people who have been a fabric of our community for decades are no longer able to afford to stay. It is a problem facing too Many Americans. This didnt happen overnight. According to the Affordable Housing low income mission, the decline started between 1991 and 2015 and now we have a major housing supply crunch that has led to soaring rents and home prices. Developers have more incentives to build 6 million mcmansions and luxury apartments, that doesnt help those who need a safe, Affordable Community and it doesnt help young families that too need 1,800 square feet, four walls and a roof. We have a Housing Market where firefighters, teachers, and nurses cannot afford to live in the communities they serve. Simply put, our current Housing Stock does not have homes to match what families want and what families need. Also contributing to the problem are housing our Housing Market has been flooded with speculators and large Institutional Investors who are looking for big profits. This is why chairman brown, senator warren and i have called on hud to stem the flow of family homes to Institutional Investors and help level the Playing Field. In this kind of market, its hard fosh everyone, especially firsttime buyers. Over the last two years the federal government has made substantial investments in Affordable Housing, helping people experience homelessness and keeping people staibly housed staibly housed, without the measures we adopted, the housing situation for millions of americans would be worse. I was part of the Bipartisan Working Group which was part of the cares act which was keeping people safe, protecting Public Health and preventing affordable prices from becoming an evicn kroises, but crisis wasnt enough. Now we have an influx of more than 46 billion in emergency rental assistance to help renters who struggle to pay their rent and utilities during the pandemic. Those funds have also been used to help with housing stability, particularly for unhoused individuals. In total, emergency rental sentence has helped over 34,000 families in rhode island alone. And i also worked with colleagues to deliver nearly 10 billion under the Homeowner Assistance Fund to help homeowners who experienced covid19 hardships keep up with house payments and stay in their homes, over 50 million in this fund is helping homeowners in my state. Rhode island and her states are also committing their American Rescue plan dollars towards building new Affordable Housing. It is hard to overstate the impact that this cushion of support has had for families in our state and across the country. Putting a historic emphasis on Housing Support helped eliminate a major potential Economic Hardship that could have been catastrophic for millions of americans. Without the worry of how to make rent or mortgage payments, families didnt need to scramble to find shelt and uproot themselves from their support systems, kids in safe homes could stay in the same schools, it helps seniors stay connected and parents keep their jobs and kept all of us healthier and safer. We need more of this kind of support for families, not less. Measures like emergency rental assistance and the home owner Assistance Fund were temporary and those programs will be wrapping up in the next few months. As we look ahead to the future, its time for us to think, what have relearned . What are the acute needs of housing today . There is no question we need to build more Affordable Housing. We need to invest in rehabilitating old homes and building new homes, specifically for lowincome families. We need to fortify the federal problems that incentivize affordable house, like a capital manage net fund and low housing tax credits. That includes extending available lowincome housing tax credits by reinstating the 12point reinstating the 12. 5 boost. It means passing the bipartisan act with senators leahy, collins, wyden, and myself, among with others, so we can recover funds from the American Rescue plan when states put the funds towards building and maintaining Affordable Housing. We need apprenticeship and training to attract more diverse workersle we need more innovation with workers. We need innovation and hightech materials. This is not a pipe dream. Rhode island has shown the world how to get innovative in the housing state with one neighborhood building row homes. These are innovative construction projects, small homes with many energysaving aspects and they are the future and we have to invest in that future. And as i said, we have to build to focus on a green future that includes the effects of climate change. That means we need to pass the green retro fits act, which i introduced with senator collins. This would boost Energy Efficiency in thousands of homes nationwide by bolstering privatepublic partnerships to create a new program to distribute Energy Efficiency grants and loans. We need to increase our assistance and our commitment to the homeless assistance grants, that includes funding for the continuum of care program which served over 750,000 people experiencing homelessness each year and for emergency solution grants which support over 350,000 who are in Emergency Shelter each year. We need to fully fund housing choice vouchers, make them easier to use in communities and incentivize landlords to take these vouchers, which is being done presently in rhode island. Investing in housing will not fuel the fire of inflation, it will tackle one of the key contributors to rising costs and help stabilize family budgets. On many of these fronts, state and local action is also need it had to move the ball forward. State and local governments must address the issue of seclusion ordinary exclusionary funding, there are barriers to building multifamily homes, making it very challenging to build affordably. It should be easier for people to converse their garage into living space for a Family Member such as an inlaw suite above a detached garage. Some of these challenges can be traced back to not in my backyard attitude which we must all do our part to overcome. Every family should have a decent, affordable place to live and we need to commit ourselves to making investments an and policies to make that possible. Investment in housing will lower costs to family, which will be an effective way to help overall, not immediately, but overall to lower inflationary pressures on working families. And, with that, meap, i and with that, madam president , i would thank you and i would yield the floor. Mr. Kennedy madam president. The presiding officer the senator from louisiana. Mr. Kennedy thank you, madam president. Joining me today on the floor, madam president , are mr. James shay, mr. Woody dagle, and bernadette breslin. Three very able members mf my staff. Of my staff. Madam president , i want to talk today about electricity and more specifically about how to pay for it. My people are really struggling right now. Folks in my home state of louisiana, and i know this is true in your state, madam president , and across the country, are facing some of the Largest Energy bills, electricity bills in the history of ever. In the past month, ive learned about a a woman in shreveport in my state, whose electricity bill went from 180 to 243, another person whose bill went up to 363. A citizen of mine in minority leaders who went f your electricity bill should not be onethird of your paycheck. I realize that to some americans who are fortunate enough to be wealthier, these increases may seem insignificant, but many of my people in louisiana, madam president , live from paycheck to paycheck. And put very simply, many of the people in my state and many of their fellow americans simply cannot afford this. Now, look, i understand its hot. I understand its hot in louisiana. Heres a news flash. In the summer its always hot in louisiana. Some days i think that that that god gave louisiana a choice between good food and good weather, and we chose good food. I get that, but heat is not the main reason that these electricity bills are soaring. Its not. The main reason that electricity bills are soaring is because of President Bidens profoundly foolish energy policies. Which have depleted americas natural gas inventories. Because of this, Natural Gas Prices have increased 75 from 2022. Not from 2020. Not 9. 1 that you read in the newspaper or attributed to inflation in general, its 20 and they continue to climb. Energy, madam president , is one of the largest electricity providers in my state. Particularly in south louisiana. Actually all over my state, and there was a energy sent a letter to my customers. This is what energy told its rate payers and my people. The cost of natural gas which we used to separate numerous Power Generation facilities continues to rise. Natural gas prices in april of 2022 were more than double those of april of 2021, and three times higher than april of 2020. As a result, these hig higherthannormal costs will be seen on customer bills. And thats why my people are so scared. Thats why the American People are so scared. Louisianians are not alone on this. A recent survey theres a very representable Research Firm called help adviser. It just found that 24 , a quarter of all americans have reduced or gone without paying basic expenses so they can pay their energy bill, pay their electricity bill. What country are we living in . Now, the Current Energy crisis and thats what this is is a sucking chest wound for louisianians and for americans but yet President Biden refuses to budge from his war on Affordable Energy that got us here. I will say this. President biden has been true to his word. Day one in his campaign he said he would destroy Americas Energy independence, and by god he has done it. He said that. My goddess been successful by god hes been successful. He killed the keystone pipeline. Hes canceled our countrys mineral leases. He stalled our countrys pipelines, and hes told his banking regulators to dry up capital and loans for energy production. Hes put the full force and weight of the United States government behind this effort to destroy oil and gas. And in doing so, he has intentionally forfeited Americas Energy independence. And thats why electricity bills are so high. Ill give you one example. Im not going to beat this to death. But just last month earlier this month, i guess, just before july 4th, President Bidens department of the interior released its fiveyear federal leasing plan. That plan contained a maximum doesnt even mean theyll do this amount a maximum of 11 lease sales for oil and gas producers. You know what the last plan proposed under the biden add under the Prior Administration . 47. Its clear. I mean, i get it. President biden does not want the United States of america to produce its own fossil fuels. He just doesnt. His new plan is were going to forfeit our Energy Independence. We have to have oil and gas to run the greatest economy in all of human history. So where are we going to get it if we forfeit our Energy Independence . Well, were going to buy natural gas and oil from countries, Foreign Countries that hate us so those Foreign Countries will have more money to buy weapons to try to kill us. Thats what were doing. Now, whats the answer . How do we fix this . Well, the answer, duh, is to have the American People produce their own oil and gas, and we can do it. Weve done it before. We were energy independent. My people in louisiana know how to produce clean, Affordable Energy and so do other people in other states. And this is what else my people would tell President Biden if they could speak to him directly. Theyd say mr. President , with all due respect, we can produce natural gas. We can produce oil. And they would go further. Theyd say mr. President , we want you to understand that we dont hate wind. We dont hate solar. We, the people of louisiana, we want to explore all alternative forms of energy. Wind, solar, nuclear, clean hide generally. Hydroelectric. But they would go further and say mr. President , we want a balanced Energy Policy. And ours is the greatest economy in all of human history. And it uses a lot of energy. And 80 of our energy comes from fossil fuels. Do we work every day to make those fossil fuels cleaner . Yes. But we cant do without them. And when we try, this is what happens in terms of electricity bills. There are ways that people can keep can get help. Theyre struggling right now in my state, madam president. For example, for customers in new orleans, energy has created a program called energy smart program, entergy, the electric power company, will send someone out to your residence for free and make suggestions on how you can lower your bills. There are other entities trying to help. Theres a group called share the light. Another group called smile. These are local nonprofits in lafayette that will try to help people in their area who are having trouble paying their electricity bill. Slim co is also offering a terrific Utility Assistance Program that would provide a onetime 300 grant payment for people who cant pay their electricity bill. And of course there are also programs under my states Louisiana Housing corps. Such as la heap and weatherization Assistance Program that can help folks reduce their electricity bills. Madam president , let me close this way. Two years ago i was on the same floor in this very same spot right here. I was able to talk about how our economy was soaring. Two years ago i was able to proudly say we in america are energy independent, that unemployment is at record lows, and that americans have more money in their pockets. And we can have that gone we can have that again, madam president. The American People deserve it and we can have it again, but not if President Biden continues to double down on what in my judgment is his bonedeep, down to the marrow foolish Energy Policy which when you scrub away all the rhetoric amounts to this. Wind, solar, and wishful thinking. You cant produce electricity with wishful thinking. And my peoples bills are way too high and they dont have to be that high if President Biden would just listen. Madam president , thank you. I suggest the absence of a quorum. The presiding officer will the senator withhold his request. Mr. Kennedy i beg your barton. The presiding officer will the senator withhold his request. Mr. Kennedy i would. How about if i yield to senator marshall. I yield. A senator a senator thank you so much. Madam president. The pr, this week afterwaiting a statue will replace kansas native and former United States senator john engles in the statuary hall collection. Mr. Marshall it will join dwight eisenhower,