The Trump administration wants to eliminate the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), a little-known piece of the social safety net that helps low-income people pay their utility bills.

Congress created the energy assistance for low-income households program in 1981, initially to help people pay for heating in the winter. The program — which has had broad bipartisan support — has increasingly been used to pay for cooling as summers grow hotter and more dangerous to human health due to climate change.

At a recent budget hearing, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, an Alaska Republican, called the program a “lifesaver” for residents in Alaska when questioning Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. about its future.

Kennedy acknowledged the importance of the energy assistance for low-income households program but also said Trump’s proposal to eliminate the funding was based on the expectation of lower future energy prices. Yet according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, residential energy prices are expected to go up in much of the country at least through 2026.

Murkowski and lawmakers from across the aisle have been pressuring the administration to commit to funding the program, which provided $4.1 billion to states, territories and tribal nations in fiscal 2025. But the administration has not only called to defund the program in its entirety, but also has put the staff that administer the program at Health and Human Services (HHS) on leave.

Advocates say the end of the program could be disastrous for households who rely on other government benefits that are also under threat, like the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) and Medicaid, which are both facing deep cuts.

As the funding of LIHEAP continues to be debated on the national level, here’s an explanation of what the program does and who it helps:

What Does the Low Income Housing Energy Assistance Program Do?

LIHEAP helps about 6 million households pay their heating- and cooling-related utility bills annually and prevents disconnections through an emergency assistance fund. The payments typically go directly to the utility companies.

States tailor the program to best fit the needs of residents. For example, in places like Arizona, where extreme heat kills hundreds of people a year, a higher allocation of funding goes to cooling assistance. In some states, funds can be used to repair furnaces or air conditioning units.

Read the full article about the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program by Jessica Kutz at The 19th.