REP. MEEKS AND COLLEAGUES SUPPORT HEATING ASSISTANCE FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS

REP. MEEKS AND COLLEAGUES SUPPORT HEATING ASSISTANCE FOR LOW-INCOME FAMILIES AND INDIVIDUALS

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-NY), a senior member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and five democratic colleagues sent a letter today to the President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, and the people of Venezuela, thanking them for generous contributions of heating oil to low-income Americans over the past eight years. The letter also asks the Maduro Administration to continue the heating program this winter season.

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Full text of the letter:

January 15, 2014

The Honorable Nicolas Maduro
President, Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela
Palacio Miraflores
Caracas, Venezuela

Dear Mr. President:

We are writing to thank you and the Venezuelan people for the generous donation of heating oil to low-income families in the United States over the last eight years and to ask you to once again provide assistance to the needy of our country this winter season.

As you know, shipments of donated heating oil began arriving in the U.S. from Venezuela in the wake of Hurricane Katrina out of concern for the impact of the rising price of fuel on poor families. Venezuela and its U.S. subsidiary, CITGO Petroleum, Inc., was the only country and the only company that responded to appeals from Members of Congress and organizations like Citizens Energy Corporation to help relieve the burden of skyrocketing heating costs on the poor during the winter of 2005-2006.

Since then, hundreds of thousands of families in 26 states, including members of over 60 Native American tribes from Alaska to Maine, residents of over 200 homeless shelters, and tenants in hundreds of low-income cooperative buildings, have received heating assistance, thanks to your generosity.

Winter’s full force has now descended on cold-weather states in our country, putting the health and safety of millions of our constituents at risk. At a time that public and private resources in our country are falling short of meeting the rising need of families who are in danger of being left out in the cold, we urge you to once again confer the gift of warmth on our most vulnerable friends and neighbors.

Mr. President, we thank you for your consideration, commend you for your past generosity, and look forward to another season of Venezuela showing solidarity with the needs of poor families who depend on oil to keep warm.

Sincerely,

Gregory W. Meeks
Member of Congress

Charles Rangel
Member of Congress

James P. McGovern
Member of Congress

Michael Capuano
Member of Congress

Stephen Lynch
Member of Congress

Donald Payne, Jr.
Member of Congress