Millions of dollars in heating assistance for Americans who are at risk because of the shutdown

The government shutdown could cause millions of Americans to have difficulty accessing funding for their home heating as early as next month, said lawmakers and non-profit groups on Wednesday. In its 29th day of shutdown, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services could deny states $3.6 billion in funding under the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). These funds are used to pay for winter heating bills and summer cooling costs. About 80% of the funds is spent in winter.

States receive their allocations typically in November or October, and funds are distributed in November and December to households.

U.S. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (a Republican from Pennsylvania) called on Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Health Secretary, to ensure that LIHEAP funding would continue during the shutdown.

Fitzpatrick wrote to Kennedy that "no household should be forced to choose between maintaining a safe temperature in their home, receiving basic healthcare or having food to eat."

He called on HHS use all available authorities and mechanisms to maintain LIHEAP without interruption, and to communicate to states and providers in order to prevent service gaps which would put communities at risk. According to Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services, about 300,000 households in the state use LIHEAP funding to heat their homes. Minnesotan and New York officials have warned residents of the possibility that their funds could be delayed. In a statement released last week, the Governor's Office of Kathy Hochul said that the program helped 1.5 million New York households in 2017.

Hochul stated that "Due to the Washington Republicans' shutdown of government, hundreds of thousand of New Yorkers who are vulnerable will be left out in the cold." In April, the Trump administration fired LIHEAP employees as part of a broader federal budget cutback. This raised concerns over getting funding to states. Emily Hilliard at HHS blamed Democrats for shutting down the government and said the Administration for Children and Families (an HHS division) "will work quickly to administer annual awards" once the federal government reopens.

Madeleine Dean of Pennsylvania, a Democrat, said the situation was "inacceptable" in X. Dean wrote: "While those most vulnerable pay the price of this shutdown, Republicans appear uninterested in ending the situation." Mark Wolfe said that any delay in funding will be hard for the most vulnerable Americans. 42 million Americans are set to lose food assistance from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance program on Saturday.

Wolfe stated in an interview that if the shutdown continues the lives low-income, poor families in the United States would become even more difficult. A $500 grant from the Energy Assistance Program might not seem like much to a family with a higher income, but it's enough to purchase heating oil for a family on a lower income to start their furnace. (Reporting from Timothy Gardner in Washington, and Nichola in Los Angeles. Editing by Bill Berkrot & Richard Chang.

(source: Reuters)