Last year, the low -income energy aid program, or Liheap, distributed approximately $ 4 billion to families who are struggling to pay their energy bills. It is a lifeline for more than 6 million families, but in recent months the program has become a target for financing discounts.
In early April, the Donald Trump administration Discipline of nearly dozens of employees In the Ministry of Health and Humanitarian Services who supervised the program. Since HHS has not yet distributed all the funding for this fiscal year, employee discounts put about $ 400 million in danger. Senator Susan Collins, Republican Chairman of the Strong Senate Accreditation Committee, Send a message For Robert F. Kennedy Junior, Secretary of HHS, is asked to reverse the training course “on any discounts in employees or financing that will show the distribution of these funds to our components.”
Then, HHS created one of the employees who were temporarily demobilized. The function of this person was to determine how much Liheap countries and other beneficiaries receive. They were returned to the remaining $ 400 million, which the agency did last Thursday.
In the budget proposal that was released the next day, the White House suggested completely ending the program. The White House Trump said that for “unnecessary” dislike and that the administration “will support individuals with low incomes through energy dominance, low prices, and an American first economic platform.”
“It is a harsh proposal,” said Mark Wolf, Executive Director of the National Association for National Aid Directors of Energy Aid, which represents the directors of Liheap government programs. “They suggest zero, and this would cause great harm to some of the poorest families in the country.”
Trump budget suggestion, at this stage, only – suggestion. Every year, presenting the president is a starting point for the Congress budget. Ultimately, Congress controls the federal government wallets and decisions on Liheap credits. Historically, the Congress motivated Hayeb. Since 2009, the program, which was created in the 1980s, has received, At least 3 billion dollars From Congress. At the peak of the epidemic, Congress has allocated more than $ 8 billion through Liheap.
But Trump’s suggestion is a sign of management priorities – recommends that nearly 23 percent of federal spending in general – and HHS still decide whether and how to distribute Liheap boxes and how. Employees of the program, who are now demobilized, are responsible for dividing money into countries, tribes and regions based on a complex formula that takes climate, population marks and other factors in mind. Without employees running the program and giving the management position, HHS can decide not to pay any money benefiting from Congress for the next fiscal year, which begins on October 1.
“They were controlling slow money, they were delaying payments-and in this case, because they are providing the argument, this program is no longer necessary, so why did they issue money?” Wolf said.
In addition to questioning the need for the program, the White House indicated Long closed check From the program by the government accounting office. The 2010 report found 11,000 requests for Liheap with the names of dead and 1,000 requests from federal employees whose salaries exceeded the income thresholds set by the program. In response to these results, HHS requested countries to collect social security numbers as a condition for Liheap and the remaining applications with death data. these The changes were entered by 2014The government accounting office closed the report.
“It is actually to say that these results are the situation,” said a former HHS employee who was responsible for compliance with Liheap and was recently. They said that the program now requires applicants to provide social security numbers, to prove income and an active interest bill. In the end, someone must come physically to apply for the program.
They said: “In my time in HHS and supervising the Liheap program, the majority of compliance results were more related to improving the program to make it more effective and more efficient – not related to fraud, waste or abuse.”
As Collins’s message indicates, the Trump administration seems sensitive to general pressure and Congress to finance to be embarrassed. Wolf and others said that they spoke with Grest that the largest factor in the administration will launch the remaining $ 400 million. Looking at the decisive role of Colines in the budget making process, the Trump administration can choose to distribute funds according to the instructions. But given that the administration wants to finish financing for the program and the fact that the employees responsible for its operation have been demobilized, it is unclear what may happen if Congress is allocating money for Liheap in the coming months.
Katrina Mitzer, Executive Director of the Energy Power Coalition, said that the lack of certainty about the program is flowing to the state and local outlets at Liheap.
She said, “They would usually communicate with our federal partners in HHS to answer the questions they had, but these employees were eliminated,” she said. “There are a lot of disturbances and uncertainty.”
