When North Philadelphia resident Michael Brown went to turn on his heater last fall, he found it wasn't working. Replacing it himself would cost as much as $5,000.
Brown never had any trouble paying his heating bills, but last year the 51-year-old was forced to retire early after he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which affects his mobility. Suddenly, the former mortgage underwriter had no money coming in and no heat.
Brown got through the winter with the help of two space heaters, but his house was still chilly.
Finally, relief came in February when Brown was approved for assistance through the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps people pay their heating bills, buy fuel, avoid shutoffs and repair broken heating equipment.
"They delivered the heater like the next week, and so far so good," Brown said. "The program is unbelievable."
But the federally funded program could soon be on the chopping block.
Last month, the Trump administration fired the staff administering the program. Then, in the president's recent budget proposal, the White House proposed getting rid of the program entirely, calling it "unnecessary" and saying the administration would support low-income energy customers instead through "energy dominance, lower prices, and an America First economic platform."
Brown sees it differently.
"It would be a tragedy," Brown said.
Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians rely on LIHEAP assistance
The federal government allocated Pennsylvania roughly $230 million in LIHEAP funding for this past heating season, which stretched from November through April. The program serves over 300,000 Pennsylvania households in a typical year, according to the state Department of Human Services.
LIHEAP assistance comes in two forms: "cash" and "crisis." Cash grants help households pay their winter heating bills even when they're not at immediate risk of having their utility service terminated, while crisis grants provide emergency help to fix broken heaters, buy fuel, avoid shutoffs or restore terminated service.
LIHEAP cash grants go directly from the state to utilities, on behalf of customers. The average bill assistance payment made on behalf of a recipient in Pennsylvania this past winter was less than $300, while the average crisis grant amounted to more than $500, according to data provided by the state Department of Human Services. Each household can receive up to $1,000 in nonemergency bill assistance and $1,000 worth of crisis assistance.
The program is reserved for households with low incomes. To qualify in Pennsylvania, an individual can earn no more than $22,590 annually, and a family of four no more than $46,800. From August through early May, most LIHEAP payments benefitted Pennsylvania households earning less than $20,000, according to state data.
"This is a lifeline," said David Konisky, a professor of environmental policy at Indiana University who co-directs the Energy Justice Lab.
If the program were to disappear, some LIHEAP recipients would face mounting utility debt and the threat of termination, Konisky said. Some might seek help from family and friends or faith-based organizations. Some might put more money toward their heating bills, while shortchanging other bills. Others might rely on electric space heaters or ovens to warm their homes.
"Those types of strategies, many of which are quite dangerous and can create significant health effects, are things people have to do to keep alive … to keep a safe temperature in their homes," Konisky said.
Brown noted some of these strategies can also drive up electricity bills.
"It's like a domino effect," he said.
Many LIHEAP recipients are seniors or disabled. This past heating season, 43% of LIHEAP payments in Pennsylvania were made on behalf of households with members over the age of 60, and 28% were made on behalf of households with members with disabilities, according to state data.
The proposal to eliminate LIHEAP at the federal level comes as the program is increasingly used to cover cooling costs.
The past three summers, Pennsylvania has used LIHEAP funds left over from the winter heating season to provide free air conditioners. This pilot cooling program proved wildly popular, but state officials said there won't be enough funds to run the program this summer. Advocates have called on state lawmakers to allocate state funding to help cover cooling bills.
In its LIHEAP plan for this fiscal year, the state said it planned to spend 15% of its LIHEAP funds on a home weatherization program for low-income households and up to 10% on administrative costs.
Ending LIHEAP could drive up utility rates
Pennsylvania utilities have received hundreds of millions of dollars in bill payments on behalf of LIHEAP recipients in recent years.
From 2021 through 2023, over $500 million in LIHEAP funding was paid to Pennsylvania utilities on behalf of customers, according to data published by the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, or PUC. During this time period, some federal LIHEAP allocations were larger than usual due to temporary increases, including from pandemic relief funds passed by Congress.
Philadelphia Gas Works received the most in LIHEAP payments — on average, more than $35 million a year from 2021 to 2023, according to PUC data. A PGW spokesperson declined requests for an interview or comment for this story, but the American Gas Association, which represents gas utilities, wrote in a statement that LIHEAP "keeps people safe."
"Support for the LIHEAP program is squarely in line with our industry and this Administration's priorities to make energy affordable for American families and businesses," American Gas Association President and CEO Karen Harbert said in a recent press release about the current fiscal year's funding. "LIHEAP is not an entitlement program. Congress makes the choice to fund it every year to help low income and vulnerable American families pay their utility bills, avoid shutoffs, and make changes to improve their home's efficiency to lower their bills in the long term. AGA looks forward to continuing to work with the Administration and Congress to ensure a strong and efficient LIHEAP program this year and into the future."
PECO, which received the next largest share of LIHEAP dollars as customer bill payments, is also calling for preservation of the program. Patricia King, the utility's manager of community engagement, said many customers enrolled in PECO's Customer Assistance Program still need LIHEAP to get "over the hump."
"It's such a critical program for our vulnerable populations," King said. "It will be very challenging for customers to come up with that kind of money."
Without the temporary supplemental allocations from Congress, PECO typically receives $15 million to $20 million per year in bill payments on behalf of LIHEAP recipients, King said. PECO officials said charitable organizations might increase assistance, and LIHEAP recipients would do everything they could to pay their bills, but making up the difference would be difficult.
If the program were to end, the utility would likely end up raising rates for the rest of its customers to cover the loss, said Tom Bonner, PECO's senior manager of state government affairs.
"It'd be unpaid bills that ultimately end up getting covered … by the rest of our customers," Bonner said. "The way utilities work, as PECO, we will have that covered. The question is, who is going to pay?"
Konisky, co-director of the Energy Justice Lab at Indiana University, said it's a pattern that could play out more broadly if LIHEAP funds were eliminated for a long period of time nationwide.
"Utilities would want to recoup that lost income one way or the other, and the easiest way for them to do that would be to sort of socialize those costs across the full rate base of their customers, which would often then entail them raising rates on other customers to sort of make up the difference," he said.
Plan to cut LIHEAP faces an uncertain future
The proposal to eliminate LIHEAP is far from a done deal.
Some Republican lawmakers, who currently control both chambers of Congress, have pushed back on President Donald Trump's proposal to eliminate the program. A bipartisan group of senators also wrote a letter to the Trump administration urging officials to reverse the LIHEAP staff cuts.
Konisky said while LIHEAP has had bipartisan support in the past, it's not clear what will happen this year.
"Programs like this tend to have sufficient support in Congress to make it through the appropriations process during normal times," he said. "But I don't think we're in normal times, so I think it's hard to say if LIHEAP will survive this time around."
Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors' Association — an organization that advocates for more LIHEAP funding — does not think Congress would defund the program. His worry is whether the Trump administration would release the funds to states.
"It's a very popular program," Wolfe said. "It could be a situation where Congress again provides $4 billion for LIHEAP for next fiscal year, then the administration could say, 'We don't agree with that, we're not going to spend it.' That's my concern."
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services did not respond to a request for comment.
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