Federal cuts could end energy assistance lifeline

Trump administration targets LIHEAP

On April 1, the Trump administration terminated the staff responsible for administering the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), along with 10,000 other federal employees of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Less than three weeks later, further plans to dismantle the program were revealed by media coverage of the administration’s draft budget proposal, which eliminates appropriations for LIHEAP in FY26. Congress is not bound by the president’s proposal, but without staff, even a well-funded program will fail.

A new brief from Policy Matters Ohio explains how the state uses federal LIHEAP funding in its own Home Energy Assistance Program. HEAP served over 265,000 households in 2023, alleviating energy burdens and maintaining home energy services, including home heating and cooling. The brief describes how these cuts will especially harm Ohioans with high energy burdens: those who spend more than 6% of their household income on energy costs.

“HEAP has been a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of Ohio families,” said Molly Bryden, Policy Matters’ climate and sustainability researcher. “The program has been especially important for people with disabilities, people over 60, and families with young children. These groups, among many others, are clearly not priorities for the administration.”

“In Ohio, many families struggle to keep up with their utility bills, in part because ratepayers are still paying for coal subsidies in H.B. 6,” Bryden said. “State lawmakers have also made it far too easy for utilities to raise costs for customers, while undermining policies that would lower residential energy costs.”

“Public policy should reinforce families’ economic security and create pathways out of poverty. These cuts do the opposite. LIHEAP may not be the solution to decades of state policy decisions that prop up utility monopolies at everyday ratepayers’ expense. However, in the absence of comprehensive reform, LIHEAP offers a lifeline to families who are one late payment away from a shutoff.”