About 200,000 Connecticut residents rely on federal aid to keep their electricity running and homes warm in the winter, but recent cuts made by the administration of President Donald Trump threaten the program.
Earlier this week, all federal employees running the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) were abruptly terminated as part of a massive purge at the Department of Health and Human Services under Health Secretary, Robert F. Kennedy, Jr.
The move could effectively paralyze a program that sends about $80 million annually to the state and distributes billions to low-income households nationwide.
Connecticut lawmakers and social service providers gathered in Hartford Wednesday to discuss what they say is a lack of any plan for LIHEAP’s future.
“Yeah, they might not have cut the funds, but they've taken away all the institutional knowledge and all the ability of anyone who works on that program across this country to have a point person for anyone federally to administer those funds,” Democratic State Rep. Jillian Gilchrest said.
Of Connecticut’s $80 million annual LIHEAP allocation, 10% is administered retroactively, once the winter season ends. That $8 million pool of money has yet to be released, said Peter Hadler, deputy commissioner of Connecticut’s Department of Social Services (DSS).
“We won't see the direct impact in Connecticut today or tomorrow. But programs don't run themselves without any federal support or expertise. The program will slowly stop functioning,” Hadler said.
In Connecticut, DSS is in charge of administering Connecticut’s LIHEAP program, called the Connecticut Energy Assistance Program (CEAP).
About 100,000 households, and 200,000 residents, use LIHEAP annually, Hadler said.
“What's very important to understand is that 75% of those households have a vulnerable household member, someone with a disability, an older adult or a child that's very young, under the age of five,” Hadler said. “These families are in very difficult situations, needing to choose between whether to pay an electric bill or food for their families, and now there's uncertainty about whether they'll even have this option.”
For Connecticut, the federal workers behind LIHEAP oversaw reports of Connecticut’s need and use of LIHEAP funds and approved payments for residents, Hadler said.
The state has enough LIHEAP funding to get through the remainder of the program year, Hadler said.
But the lack of reliable federal aid will put an additional strain on local nonprofits and energy assistance providers, like Operation Fuel.
“When CEAP funding declines, demand for Operation fuel increases directly, and we've seen that over the past few years,” Operation Fuel’s Chief Program Officer Gannon Long said.
CEAP is specifically used to provide deliverable heating agents, like natural gas or oil, Connecticut Consumer Counsel Claire Coleman said. However, with no federal aid to pay for heating, recipients may be forced to spend more on oil or gas, and fall behind on electricity payments.
“We do anticipate that losing federal funding would mean customers would have more trouble paying their bills, and that means more bad debt, more late bills that then are paid for by all ratepayers,” Coleman said.
