Every government employee who works in a program that helps low-income people with their heating and cooling bills has been fired by the Trump administration. "They fired everybody, there's nobody left to do anything," said Mark Wolfe, executive director of a group that works with the program, per the New York Times. The entire staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, about 25 people, was let go on Tuesday as part of Health and Human Services' elimination this week of thousands of jobs.
LIHEAP uses a formula to decide how much money to send to states, which then deploy it to help keep utilities turned on for about 6.2 million low-income people and weatherize housing. About 90% of the $4.1 billion Congress approved for the program for fiscal 2025 was distributed to states in October for help with heating bills. About $378 million remains for air conditioning needs this year. Although Congress has ordered the money allocated, it's not clear how that could happen now. "With no staff there to run the formula, no staff there to administer the award, I don't know how that money will go out," Wolfe said, per the Hill.
A spokeswoman nevertheless emailed the Times that the agency will comply with federal law and that HHS, "as a result of the reorganization, will be better positioned to execute on Congress's statutory intent." Democratic Rep. Jared Golden, whose Maine district voted for President Trump in November, posted, "What 'efficiency' is achieved by firing everyone in Maine whose job is to help Mainers afford heating oil when it's cold?" (More LIHEAP stories.)
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