Vermont’s Congressional delegation has called on Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore staff that administers the federal Low-Income Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP).
In a letter to Kennedy dated April 4, they state the program is “a lifeline for more than 26,000 Vermonters and 6.2 million Americans across the country” to help them afford heat and air conditioning.
“Your decision to close the Division of Energy Assistance (DEA) at HHS and terminate its employees is unacceptable,” they writing, adding that the layoffs threaten the continued existence of the program.
The delegation consists of U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders, an independent, U.S. Senator Peter Welch a Democrat, and U.S. Representative Becca Balint, a Democrat.
“The Administration must reinstate DEA staff immediately and continue to disburse Congressionally appropriated LIHEAP funding to states so that thousands of Vermonters and millions of Americans are not forced to make the unacceptable choice between putting food on the table, paying for prescription drugs, or heating their homes in the winter,” they write. “As energy prices have increased across the country, LIHEAP has seen record utilizations in recent years. In Vermont, approximately 23 percent of households report that they were unable to pay their energy bills in full, with tariffs on Canadian energy products threatening to drive utility bills even higher.”
Created by a law passed in 1981, LIHEAP assists households with low incomes, particularly those with the lowest incomes that pay a high proportion of household income for home energy, primarily in meeting their immediate home energy needs. The program includes funds for both heating in the winter and cooling in the summer. In fiscal year 2024, $4.1 billion had been allocated to the program.
According to the Associated Press, on April 1, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services announced that it was cutting another 10,000 of its 80,000 employees for a total of 20,000 terminations and early retirements. This downsizing of 25 percent included firing of all staff who run the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The program has $378 million in remaining unreleased funds for this year.
Members of both the House and Senate last week signed onto letters to Kennedy objecting to the elimination of program staff. Republicans Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska joined 11 Democratic senators in a letter to Kennedy protesting the cut. “Though the staff of 25 employees account for only a small fraction of the announced layoffs, they are responsible for administering billions of dollars each year to support millions of families across the nation in heating and cooling their homes,” states the letter from House members to Kennedy.
Sanders, ranking member, and Sen. Bill Cassidy, chairman of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, have invited Kennedy to testify before the committee on April 10. The hearing is titled “An Update on the Restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services.” Cassidy, a Republican from Louisiana, is a medical doctor. It is unclear weather Kennedy will attend.
“LIHEAP is a lifesaving service during the long winter heating months and hot summers,” the Vermont delegation states.
“The Administration has a responsibility to disburse LIHEAP funds to states and ensure the program lives up to its promise to help families keep the heat on. Failure constitutes an illegal impoundment of bipartisan, Congressionally-appropriated funds and will put millions of households across the country at risk of energy insecurity,” they continue. “You must immediately reinstate DEA staff so they can continue the urgent work of administering LIHEAP and providing critical assistance to American families.”
Community action
Josh Davis, executive director of Southeastern Vermont Community Action (SEVCA) in Westminster, said that, without warning, the administration fired all 25 staff members in the Washington office.
“The funds are still there,” he said. “But there is a concern [that] there is nobody in the office to process the requests.”
Davis said SEVCA received a grant of $275,000 but not in one lump sum. SEVCA, like many other non-profit organizations, draws down the funds from a federal portal after it has submitted receipts of expenditures for programs such as LIHEAP.
SEVCA still has another $175,000 for the rest of the fiscal year to respond to home energy emergencies.
“This year, we have supported 350 households,” he said. “We are concerned about fiscal year ’26, but there’s just no way of knowing where this will land.”
SEVCA receives about 90 percent of its funding from Washington D.C. and Montpelier, though much of the state funding itself is federal money flowing through state agencies.
Alison Calderara is interim co-executive director & chief of programs and advancement of Capstone Community Action in central Vermont.
“We are deeply concerned about the elimination of federal LIHEAP staff. LIHEAP funds are the heart of our crisis fuel program and constitute approximately $300,000 of client assistance dollars,” she said. “Since October 1, we’ve provided 423 households with assistance directly from those funds ($257,000). If the federal funds go away, it not only impacts the approximately $300,000 we have to distribute, it also impacts seasonal fuel assistance through the state. We currently receive state funding for staffing for our crisis fuel program.”
Capstone serves low-income residents facing health and safety risks without heat or electricity,” she said.
“Loss of this program would be serious and significant and could literally leave vulnerable Vermonters out in the cold,” Calderara said.
“That said, we have not received any formal notification of the ending of the program. We are all anxiously awaiting the federal budget to see what the overall intent was for the future of the program,” she added. “All programs, in every state, are very worried about this will mean for their residents. Right now, states like Arizona are facing the prospect of day-time temperatures well over 100 degrees. How will they keep low-income elderly residents safe in their homes without cooling? Because of the elimination of federal staff, these states are not sure how the remaining money for the program will be distributed.”
Said Tom Donahue, CEO of BROC Community Action, which serves Bennington and Rutland Counties, “It doesn’t affect Vermont much this year.”
He said the bulk fuel provision part of the state LIHEAP program, in which they provide home heating assistance, primarily fuel oil, wraps up on Friday the 11th. The program starts at the last Monday in November and goes through the second week in April. In Vermont that’s $2.2 million and in Rutland and Bennington County it’s $260,000 in program funds.
“We’ve been providing that heating assistance throughout the winter, and we’re on the tail end of that now,” he said, “so that will have helped about 650 households by the end of the week in the two counties.”
Donahue noted that the LIHEAP money for this year had not been eliminated but the federal staff that processes the money has been. One thing that could be slowed down for Vermont is the final 10 percent of the money, which is not distributed until the end of the program each year.
“So, it’s possible that last 10 percent could be slowed down a little bit for Vermont to access,” he said.
“The flip side of this is the warmer states in the country actually provide, in the opposite months, cooling,” he said. “They’re the ones that could run into a problem with this, because now they’ve got to get their tranche of funding to provide cooling for the summer, and may not be able to access the funds readily.”
“We worry about people freezing to death. They worry about people, particularly their elderly populations, being overcome by heat,” he said.
Since Congress controls the budget and approves LIHEAP funding, and they have an appropriation for it for 2026, the state is “less concerned about the next year’s funding as far as disruption in this program,” Donahue said.
The state view
Vermont Economic Services Division Deputy Director Miranda Gray said in a statement on Monday that Vermont LIHEAP remains open despite federal changes. Vermont LIHEAP is administered by the Economic Services Division within the Department for Children and Families (DCF).
“While this represents a shift at the federal level, Vermont’s LIHEAP program is assessing any potential impacts,” she stated. “DCF assures Vermonters that LIHEAP will continue to operate as planned for the current heating season. The department remains committed to supporting households in need and will provide updates as more information becomes available.”
Story Written by Mark Rondeau & Bob Audette, Bennington Banner