Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is pushing the Trump administration to release $360 million in allocated funds for New York’s low-income energy assistance program as soon as possible.
She says the funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, were appropriated by Congress in the Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act earlier this month. LIHEAP is the federal program that provides funds for New York’s Home Energy Assistance Program, or HEAP.
The funding is not yet late, but the senator is concerned that rising costs and the weather will catch up quickly.
"We're asking him to release the funds now because people are so anxious about being able to afford their heating bills because of the cost of everything else," Gillibrand said Thursday in a press conference. "So, if the LIHEAP money flows, people can do their applications and then know they can heat their homes. It's also getting colder, particularly in upstate and in Western New York. So people are going to need their heating to be turned on very soon if it's not on already.”
Trump has previously proposed eliminating the energy assistance program altogether. Earlier this year, the National Energy Assistance Directors Association wrote that Trump’s proposed cut would eliminate $4 billion in energy assistance for about 6 million low-income homes across the U.S. The group added that Census data "showed more than one-third of households making under $50,000 were unable to pay an energy bill at least once in the past year."
Gillibrand cites previous winter emergencies, including the Buffalo blizzard, when explaining why this funding is dire.
“This could have deadly consequences," Gillibrand said. "A few years ago, a catastrophic blizzard took the lives of nearly 50 people living in Western New York. Several were found in homes without heat. In January 2022, 17 people in the Bronx were killed in a fire sparked by faulty space heater, which some families use as a cheaper alternative to central heat."
Gillibrand says that she has sent a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., demanding he release the funding.
