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Vermont’s Congressional Delegation is again seeking answers from the Trump Administration about the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) program — this time over its proposed elimination.
The administration’s recently released 2026 budget proposal argues that the program is no longer necessary to subsidize heating and cooling costs. On May 28, Vermont’s delegation, Senators Bernie Sanders and Peter Welch, and Rep. Becca Balint, sent a joint letter to Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. seeking answers.
At the beginning of April, among thousands of job cuts announced by HHS, all federal staff who then ran the LIHEAP program were eliminated. The delegation wrote to Kennedy at that time but did not hear back. In the meantime, funds allocated to the program through this summer have continued to be dispersed.
“We write to you again regarding the Department of Health and Human Service’s decision to close the Division of Energy Assistance, which operates the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and to terminate its employees,” states the May 28 letter from the delegation. “We wrote to you as a delegation on April 4, 2025, expressing our deep concern with this decision (to terminate the employees) and our support for LIHEAP. We have yet to receive a reply.”
According to the delegation, LIHEAP is a lifeline to more than 26,000 Vermonters and 6.2 million Americans nationwide. In 2024, approximately 23 percent of Vermont households reported being unable to pay their energy bills in full. Vermont receives approximately $20 million in LIHEAP funding per year. The assistance includes help for both heating and cooling.
“The President has described LIHEAP as ‘unnecessary’ and has suggested shifting the burden of this program to states. However, states are under increasing pressure to balance their budgets and will have to prioritize which social services they continue to provide in the absence of federal funding,” wrote the delegation. “Given the Trump Administration’s continued cuts to safety net programs, states could face budget shortfalls if they are responsible for shouldering the full cost of LIHEAP.”
The letter adds, “The administration has a legal responsibility to disburse current LIHEAP funding to states. We appreciate that all funding for fiscal year 2025 continue to be disbursed. However, we remain concerned about the future of LIHEAP under these circumstances.”
The members asked for a staff briefing on the matter and also asked several questions. They asked which department of HHS is currently administering the program and the number of staff doing so; whether HHS will operate LIHEAP going forward and, if not, are states expected to do so. If states are expected to operate the program, will HHS “provide resources to transition the administration to state agencies?” they ask.
OMB rationale
A May 2 summary from the White House Office of Management and Budget on President Trump’s recommendations on discretionary funding levels for fiscal year 2026 offers justifications for eliminating the program.
One argument is that the financial aid is basically a subsidy for utility companies.
“This Administration is committed to lowering energy costs for American families by unleashing energy production,” the summary states. “The Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) is unnecessary because States have policies preventing utility disconnection for low-income households, effectively making LIHEAP a pass-through benefitting utilities in the Northeast.”
The summary also takes aim at large-state energy policies.
“LIHEAP rewards States like New York and California, two of the top recipients for LIHEAP funding, which have implemented anti-consumer policies that drive up home energy prices,” it states. “The Budget proposes to end this program and to instead support low-income individuals through energy dominance, lower prices, and an America First economic platform.”
Finally, the summary cites a Government Accountability Office (GAO) audit of seven states in 2010 finding fraud and abuse in the program.
Advocacy group’s view
According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA) the budget proposal would eliminate $4 billion in assistance to about six million very low-income households that rely on LIHEAP to pay their home heating and cooling bills. NEADA is the primary educational and policy organization for state directors of LIHEAP.
A press release from the organization notes that one-out-of-six families are currently behind on their home energy bills and the total amount these families owe for their utilities is approximately $21 billion, the highest level since 2021 and up by about 30 percent since the end of 2023.
In addition, 37.4 percent of families earning less than $50,000 a year reported in a recent Census survey that they were unable to pay an energy bill at least once in the past year, according to the release.
“I am very disappointed that the administration is seeking to zero-out LIHEAP funding in their next budget,” said Mark Wolfe, NEADA executive director. ‘Low-income families need support next year and beyond to pay their home energy bills, especially as electric and gas prices continue to soar as well as the new tariffs are driving up prices for essential goods that low-income families rely on.”
The NEADA release takes on the claims made by the Administration’s budget proposal.
Regarding the finding of fraud and abuse in a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report from 2010, the states studied disagreed with many of the claims made, NEADA claims.
In addition, the report “resulted in the establishment of a joint HHS/state task force to modernize the application process, increase program integrity, and increase the frequency of state program audits,” according to NEADA. “The GAO has since confirmed that all recommended actions to reduce the program’s fraud risk have been implemented.”
NEADA also responded to the claim that LIHEAP is unnecessary because states prohibit utility shutoffs for low-income households and that the program is “a pass-through benefitting utilities in the Northeast.”
LIHEAP benefits families all around the country and not just in the Northeast. The program “is no more a ‘pass-through benefiting utilities’ than food assistance is a pass-through for grocery stores, or the mortgage interest deduction is a pass-through for housing lenders,” NEADA states.
States that have seasonal utility shut-off moratoriums to protect families during periods of extreme temperatures only delay bill payment temporarily.
“After the moratorium ends, the bill is due. Families that could not afford to pay their bill during the shut-off moratorium will likely not be able to pay off the amount owed when the moratorium ends,” the release states. “Without LIHEAP stepping in to pay these bills, even more families would face shut-off conditions.”
Congress created LIHEAP in 1981. In addition to numerous Democrats in Congress, the program has had the support of at least two Republican Senators in cold-weather states. Sens. Susan Collins, Maine, and Lisa Murkowski, Alaska, both urged HHS to reverse the program staffing cuts announced in April.
Story Written by Mark Rondeau, Bennington Banner