Trump’s Budget Axes Program That Keeps Poor People From Freezing To Death At Home

WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump wants to make some pretty devastating cuts to the Department of Health and Human Services in his new 2026 budget request.

But one of the cruelest is a line buried in HHS’ Budget in Brief: “The budget eliminates funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.”

The federal block grant program, often referred to as LIHEAP, has been around for decades and helps millions of people in low-income households pay their energy bills. Critically, it helps seniors, families with children, and people with disabilities keep their heat on in the dead of winter and cool air blowing in the sweltering days of summer. More than 6 million households currently rely on LIHEAP for help with energy bills.

The Trump administration appears to justify gutting LIHEAP by tying it to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives in government, all of which Trump wants to eradicate.

“Savings come from eliminating radical diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and critical race theory programs, which weaponized large swaths of the Federal Government against the American people and moving programs that are better suited for States and localities to provide,” reads the HHS budget brief, just before it calls for zeroing out LIHEAP funding.

To be sure, the president’s budget request isn’t going to become law. It has to make its way through Congress, where lawmakers will make all kinds of changes to it. But it’s going to fall on Republicans to fight to preserve LIHEAP.

The Trump administration has already crippled the low-income energy program. On April 1, HHS announced it was putting 10,000 federal employees on administrative leave through June 2, at which they would be terminated. This included the entire staff running LIHEAP. Twenty state attorneys general intervened in May and sued HHS, claiming the mass firings were illegal and calling for everyone’s jobs to be restored. The lawsuit is still underway.

State administrators that provide LIHEAP assistance still have federal money to keep operating this year, but without federal staff, the program’s future looks grim. Trump zeroing out its entire budget certainly feels like its death knell.

While Republicans in Congress are overwhelmingly beholden to Trump, they don’t have strong margins in either chamber. If even a handful of GOPers push back on a provision in a bill, their opposition could tank the whole thing.

LIHEAP could draw such pushback. House and Senate Republicans have called on HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to restore the program’s staff and vouched for its need.

Rep. Mike Lawler (R-N.Y.), one of the most politically vulnerable in his party, told Kennedy in April the program is “vital” to his community.

“The program supports our most vulnerable populations, including seniors, individuals with disabilities, and households with young children under the age of six,” Lawler wrote to Kennedy. “In FY 2023, 24% of New Yorkers reported being unable to pay their energy bill at least once in a 12-month period. During FY 2023, LIHEAP also helped prevent over 100,000 utility disconnections in New York alone, highlighting this program’s critical need.”

Sens. Susan Collins (R-Maine) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) led a bipartisan letter to Kennedy in April urging him to reverse course on LIHEAP staff cuts.

“We write regarding reports that you have terminated staff responsible for administering the LowIncome Home Energy Program,” reads their letter, signed by 13 senators. “If true, these terminations threaten to devastate a critical program dedicated to helping Americans afford their home energy bills.

“It is an indispensable lifeline, helping to ensure that recipients do not have to choose between paying their energy bills and affording other necessities like food and medicine,” said the senators.

Separately, Murkowski directly told the HHS secretary in May how crucial LIHEAP assistance is for people in her state.

“For us it’s not a budget line item,” she told Kennedy as he testified before a Senate committee. “You’ve been to Alaska. You know that the temperatures there can get really, really tough. [LIHEAP] keeps people from freezing to death in their homes.”

The fate of LIHEAP will almost certainly come up this week on Capitol Hill, with both the House and Senate back in session and Trump’s budget request now awaiting their action.

Aides to Murkowski, Collins and Lawler did not immediately respond to requests for comment relating to Trump’s budget request zeroing out LIHEAP funding.