The White House’s fiscal year 2027 budget request would eliminate all federal funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, the roughly $4 billion account that currently helps close to six million households pay their heating and cooling bills. It is the sixth consecutive year the administration has proposed zeroing out LIHEAP entirely, and Congress rejected the idea in each of the previous five cycles, even raising the program’s funding for the current year instead. Because the request applies to fiscal year 2027, which begins October 1, 2027, it does not touch money already appropriated for the heating season now underway.
The Budget Request Zeroes Out LIHEAP’s Funding
This is not the administration’s first attempt to end the program. Budget analysts count the fiscal year 2027 request as the sixth budget in a row to propose eliminating LIHEAP outright, and each of the five earlier attempts ended the same way, with Congress restoring the money. For fiscal year 2026, lawmakers went further and increased LIHEAP funding by about $20 million over the prior year, months after that year’s elimination request had already circulated.
The budget document the administration sent to Capitol Hill this spring asks for $0 for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in fiscal year 2027, down from the roughly $4.05 billion Congress appropriated for the current year, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which tracks the program’s funding history. LIHEAP pays part of winter heating bills and, in many states, summer cooling costs for households at or below set income thresholds, and the association estimates it currently reaches about six million households a year.
Administration budget documents describe the cut as part of a broader push to shift low-income energy assistance toward states, tribes and private utility hardship funds, arguing the federal program duplicates aid already available elsewhere. NEADA disputes that framing, citing its own survey data showing one in six U.S. households is currently behind on a home energy bill and that total household utility debt has climbed to roughly $25 billion, the highest level since 2021 and about 30% above where it stood at the end of 2023.
LIHEAP money moves through block grants that the Administration for Children and Families, part of the Department of Health and Human Services, distributes to all 50 states, the District of Columbia and more than 150 tribes and tribal organizations, each of which sets its own income limits and payment schedules within federal guidelines. A companion pool of “emergency crisis” funding inside the same appropriation pays for same-day help when a household’s utility service has already been shut off, a category NEADA says saw heavier use last winter as disconnection notices climbed.
Free relief finder: Property-tax freezes, exemptions and utility help for older homeowners usually only apply after someone asks. See what to look for with the free relief finder.
Lawmakers From Both Parties Have Pushed Back Before
Opposition has surfaced from both parties in every budget cycle so far. Sen. Peter Welch of Vermont led a delegation letter this spring calling the proposed elimination reckless, noting that Vermont households alone draw more than $20 million a year in LIHEAP grants to get through a heating season that runs longer and colder than in most of the country. House members including Reps. Seth Moulton and Chris Pappas, of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, filed similar objections, warning the cut would land hardest on retirees and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes.
Appropriators have so far treated the elimination request as an opening position rather than a final answer. A letter organized ahead of this year’s committee markups, addressed to House Appropriations leaders and signed by dozens of members, urged the committee to reject the cut outright and fund LIHEAP at or above its fiscal year 2026 level, the same position that prevailed in each of the previous five cycles.
LIHEAP is discretionary spending, not a mandatory entitlement, so its funding is set fresh in every annual appropriations bill, which is exactly why the same fight recurs regardless of the prior year’s outcome. Nothing in the fiscal year 2027 request changes the program’s underlying authorization or eligibility rules; it proposes spending nothing on it starting in October 2027, the date the next fiscal year would normally begin.
This Winter’s Aid Is Not Affected Yet
The continuing resolution that funds the government through December 11 keeps LIHEAP and every other discretionary program running at its fiscal year 2026 level, meaning the roughly $4.05 billion already appropriated for this heating season is unaffected by the elimination proposal. Households that already qualify can still apply through their state, tribal or territorial LIHEAP office this winter no matter how the fiscal year 2027 fight ends.
Eligibility rules vary by state, but most set the income cap at either 150% of the federal poverty line or 60% of the state median income, whichever a state chooses, and applicants typically must show a recent utility bill and proof of income when they apply. State energy offices generally set aside a separate window for the crisis component so households facing an active shutoff can get an answer faster than a routine heating-bill application.
The real test comes when lawmakers write the fiscal year 2027 spending bills later this year and into 2027, the same window in which each of the previous five elimination requests was rejected. Program staff at the Administration for Children and Families have continued processing this year’s state formula grants on schedule even as the elimination proposal moves through the broader budget process.
NEADA, which represents the state directors who administer LIHEAP day to day, says it will track the fiscal year 2027 appropriations bills through the fall and expects the same coalition that restored funding in each of the past five cycles to make the same case again this year.
Other Home-Cost Help While LIHEAP’s Future Is Debated
The fight over LIHEAP’s federal funding is only one piece of what older homeowners carry each winter, and property-tax and utility relief programs often draw far less attention even though they hit the same fixed incomes. That kind of relief typically runs through state and county government, separate from the federal LIHEAP appropriations fight, but it almost always requires a household to apply rather than being applied automatically.
The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit is an 11-page kit covering the 5 kinds of property-tax relief older homeowners can typically claim, along with heating, cooling and home-repair help that runs independent of LIHEAP.
See the five kinds of relief covered in The Senior Property Tax & Home-Cost Relief Kit.
This article was researched and drafted with the assistance of AI and reviewed by The Money Overview editorial team.
