Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program

NPR had a great article about the uncertain future of programs within the Department of Health and Human Services due to the reduction of staff members, federal aid, disability, and anti-poverty programs. At least 40% of staff members were notified of layoffs.

At the same time, many were turned away when they showed up at the Administration for Community Living, or ACL, which coordinates federal policy on aging and disability. This agency funds programs that operate senior centers, distributing 216 million meals annually to older and disabled Americans through the Meals on Wheels program.

“The programs that ACL implements improve the lives of literally tens of millions of older adults, people with disabilities, and their families and caregivers,” says Barkoff, director at George Washington University’s Milken Institute School of Public Health. “There’s no way to have these RIFs and not impact the programs and the people who rely on them.”

Under Project 2025, once the Department of Education is dismantled, ACL would take on the responsibility of special education services.

According to two employees who recently lost their jobs, all staff members from the Division of Energy Assistance were laid off.

This office administers the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which assists millions of low-income households in paying for heating and cooling bills and home repairs that enhance energy efficiency in their homes. Around 20 workers were let go, raising concerns about whether the program would continue once funding runs out, especially as heating bills rise during the winter months. One says that LIHEAP provides “life-saving services.”

These low-income older people rely on LIHEAP to pay their electric bills when they use oxygen or other medications, such as insulin, that must be stored in the refrigerator. Germain oversees compliance for the LIHEAP program and stated that fraud is rare. This program was instead scrutinized by Project 2025, which highlighted a “loophole” that Congress had previously closed in 2014.

LIHEAP received $4.1 billion in funding from Congress in 2024, but with federal staff absent, it is unclear how the program will continue after the current appropriation ends in September. Pretlow was one of many who lost her job as a program specialist in the LIHEAP office.

She said, “You can be paid much more in a different place, you can be praised more in a different place, you can be appreciated more in a different place. But the people I worked with have a great heart for service.”