Cuts to the administrative staff that oversees the Low Income Home Energy Affordability Program have made little noise among Republican senators on Capitol Hill. But Republicans whose constituents could be among the most affected are reaching out directly to the administration about their concerns.
Asked about the staffing cuts, Sen. Dan Sullivan’s office told NOTUS earlier this month that the senator — who represents Alaska, which experiences one of the highest energy costs per capita in the country — had “an extended phone call” with Health and Human Services secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose department is home to the program.
“Their conversations focused on extending some Alaska-specific programs, as well as larger solutions to address Alaska’s unique healthcare needs and challenges that one-size-fits-all approaches from Washington, D.C. often do not address,” Sullivan’s office told NOTUS in a statement. “The senator’s staff subsequently reached out to HHS with a more specific list of programs to extend, including the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.”
Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins, both members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, wrote a letter with Democrats earlier this month to Kennedy to reverse the firings.
“We are concerned that the reported staff terminations will undermine the HHS’s ability to deliver this critical funding to low-income seniors and families,” the senators wrote.
Rep. Mike Lawler posted an excerpt of a letter he wrote to Kennedy this week, expressing concern about the “future functionality” of the program.
“This program is vital in assisting families in the Hudson Valley with energy costs, and I am urging Secretary Kennedy to ensure no disruptions will occur to recipients of the program,” Lawler wrote.
The program was run by a fairly small team of 25 people who oversaw the approximately $4 billion program that helps more than 6 million households afford their energy bills, according to The New York Times. But HHS fired all of them earlier this month, as the Times first reported. That’s left no one to administer the remaining 10% from last year’s appropriations.
Katrina Metzler, executive director of the National Energy and Utility Affordability Coalition, told NOTUS that communities across the nation are filled with uncertainty as the program falls into limbo.
“We have this exacerbating effect of having no one to talk to at the federal level, a reduction in force there that eliminates a lot of the staff that we rely on for guidance and support and an influx of applications for LIHEAP to help meet the need from households who struggled over the winter to maintain access to electricity,” Metzler said.
HHS did not respond to a request for comment. By and large, Republicans have given a rubber stamp to the administration’s staffing cuts.
“Cabinet secretaries, who have the ultimate authority, they will evaluate who they need and in what positions. And then they will make sure that they have people in the right places to get the job done and hopefully find savings but make sure that people get the services they need,” said Sen. John Hoeven, a member of the Natural Resources and Appropriations committees. “That’s a process that is going to take some time, but I think that’s how it will move forward to address things like that.”
Hoeven told NOTUS he has no concerns about the future of LIHEAP, and he thinks of the changes as an effort by HHS to reorganize its department.
“There are just too many people at the administrative level and the majority of federal agencies,” said Sen. Cynthia Lummis, a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee when asked if she was concerned about what the cuts could mean for the future of the program. “That’s where they are going to look first. They’re not looking at the end recipient, they’re looking at a bloated administrative staff.”
Sen. Mike Rounds, a member of the Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs committee, told NOTUS Republicans have a history of reversing such firings.
“We found so far when we pointed out, whether it’s been staff cuts that’s made a system less efficient, we’ve actually been able to get some of those cuts reversed,” Rounds told NOTUS the day after the firings. “So I’ll have to take a look at it. I have not heard of that one yet. This is the first time I’ve heard about it.”
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Amelia Benavides-Colón is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.