ASMA KHALID, HOST:
A federal program that helps people pay their heating and cooling bills is now on hold. That's after its entire staff was fired this week. Alejandra Borunda from NPR's climate desk is here to talk about the potential fallout. Alejandra, hello.
ALEJANDRA BORUNDA, BYLINE: Hi, Asma.
KHALID: So this program, it's called the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, also known as LIHEAP, my understanding is that it has been around for years. What exactly does it do?
BORUNDA: That's a great question. So its main goal is to help people pay utility bills so they can keep the heat on during winter and cooling on during summer. And like you said, it has a really long history. So during the energy crisis of the 1970s, energy prices skyrocketed, and they got so expensive that a lot of people ended up needing help with their heating bills. So the government stepped in. It created an early version of LIHEAP, and over the decades, its successor has become a lifeline. Here's energy expert Diana Hernandez from Columbia University.
DIANA HERNANDEZ: So LIHEAP is the primary energy assistance safety net benefit in the United States. It serves millions of households every year that are facing a utility disconnection.
BORUNDA: The program sends about $4 billion of LIHEAP money to the states and territories and tribes, and they distribute it to the people who need help.
KHALID: So tell us more about what happened to the LIHEAP program this week.
BORUNDA: Yeah, so roughly two dozen staffers, or the entire office, was fired in the Trump administration's cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services, which is where LIHEAP was housed. Vikki Partlow was one of the staffers who was let go, and she says such deep staff cuts mean the program itself has essentially been gutted.
VIKKI PARTLOW: I don't really see how it can move forward without us as a federal kind of liaison.
BORUNDA: She and her colleagues had already pushed out most of the funds for the 2025 fiscal year, but there's still about $400 million in play. And she says without the staff, that money is basically locked up.
KHALID: What does that mean in practical terms, and for people trying to pay their energy bills? I mean, is this program dead?
BORUNDA: Yeah, that's the real question right now. Partlow and Hernandez say this will directly affect people in need. And the immediate concern is for the upcoming summer where people are going to need help to keep their ACs going.
MARK WOLFE: Well, we know what happens if people don't have access to summer cooling, they won't turn it on. They're afraid of the bill, and for good reason - last summer was the highest cost of summer cooling on record.
BORUNDA: That's Mark Wolfe. He runs the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which works closely with the LIHEAP program. And he says we know that people die or have big health consequences when they don't use their ACs. And then, of course, the real concern is next winter, too, because most of LIHEAP funds go to warming.
KHALID: If people are not able to get assistance through this federal program, are there other ways that they could essentially keep the electricity running?
BORUNDA: Yeah, that's another big question. Sanya Carley is an energy justice expert at the University of Pennsylvania, and she said, this is a moment when states really need to step up.
SONYA CARLEY: So I think this is a really important time for states to reevaluate the protections that they have in place, and by protections, I mean when a state tells the utility companies you cannot disconnect somebody.
BORUNDA: And look, a lot of experts say LIHEAP needed some reform. But they also say what happened this week isn't reform, and gutting the program is going to put people in real danger.
KHALID: Alejandra Borunda from NPR's climate disk, thank you so much for your reporting, appreciate it.
BORUNDA: Yeah, great talking with you.
KHALID: A spokesperson for HHS said that the department will continue to fulfill its legal obligations to run LIHEAP, though they did not specify how that would happen.
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