Dive Brief:
- A long-running federal program that provides energy bill assistance for low-income Americans will have $20 million more to work with in 2026, despite President Donald Trump’s earlier efforts to eliminate its funding.
- The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, received about $4.05 billion as part of an appropriations package that will fund most government agencies through September. Trump signed the bill into law on Tuesday, ending a brief government shutdown.
- A separate appropriations package signed by Trump last month included a modest increase in funding for a second program that subsidizes weatherization projects and other energy-efficiency improvements for low- and moderate-income households. Despite unanimous support from a key House committee, a parallel bill to expand the Weatherization Assistance Program still awaits a floor vote.
Dive Insight:
Congress created LIHEAP in 1981 following the energy crises of the 1970s. It provides states with both regular and emergency funding to subsidize heating, cooling and weatherization costs for income-qualified households.
The slight increase in LIHEAP funding from 2025 levels marks a notable reversal in the program’s fortunes. In May, the White House asked Congress to zero out funding for the program, saying state laws restricting utility shutoffs made it unnecessary.
Federal eligibility for LIHEAP is capped at either 150% of the federal poverty line or 60% of state median income, though states can set lower eligibility limits. The program helped about 6 million households in 2024 — a small subset of the roughly one in six American families behind on utility bill payments, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
Utility and energy trade groups cheered LIHEAP’s reauthorization. Naming a mix of Republican and Democratic members of Congress, American Gas Association CEO Karen Herbert thanked “our LIHEAP champions for vocalizing the importance of the LIHEAP program throughout the appropriations process.”
Though most LIHEAP funding directly subsidizes residential heating and cooling costs, some makes its way into weatherization and energy-efficiency initiatives that can mitigate load peaks during extreme weather. The program provided more than $617 million in energy-efficiency support in 2022, returning $1.72 in energy benefits for every $1 spent and reducing recipients’ average annual electricity consumption by 7%, according to the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition.
LIHEAP is a program of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, one of several departments funded by the appropriations bill Trump signed this week.
In April of last year, the Trump administration laid off approximately two dozen staffers running LIHEAP as part of a broader restructuring of HHS. Weeks later, the administration submitted an annual budget request to Congress that included no funding for the program.
“The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program 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 administration said in a note explaining the request.
The note also referenced “anti-consumer policies” in New York and California, which receive large amounts of LIHEAP funding, and “significant program integrity concerns” related to what it said were thousands of applications using the names of dead and incarcerated people.
Republican New York Rep. Mike Lawler and Democratic New Jersey Rep. Josh Gottheimer introduced a bill in June to “protect” LIHEAP by establishing minimum staffing levels for the program. Full funding for fiscal-year 2026 was eventually included in the appropriations package that became law this week.
On Jan. 23, Trump signed a separate appropriations package that included funding for the U.S. Department of Energy. That package included a modest increase in funding for the Weatherization Assistance Program, which subsidizes weatherization projects and other energy-efficiency improvements for low- and moderate-income households.
DOE has overseen the program since Congress created it in 1976.
With a budget of $329 million in fiscal year 2026, it provides an average subsidy of $6,500 per housing unit for a broad set of weatherization upgrades, including heating and cooling system replacement. Recipients can put up to $3,000 of the subsidy toward renewable energy systems.
Its budget also includes $10 million for weatherization technical assistance and $30 million for weatherization readiness.
In December, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to advance a bill that would have nearly doubled the Weatherization Assistance Program’s average subsidy per housing unit and removed the cost cap on renewable energy systems. Since then, the House of Representatives has taken no action on it.
A spokesperson for New York Rep. Paul Tonko, the bill’s top Democratic sponsor, said in an email that the next step for the bill would be to consider it on the House floor. Tonko’s office is unclear on when that could happen, they said.
