LIHEAP staff fired in 2025, still not rehired
On April 1, 2025, the government fired the entire staff of LIHEAP, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program that helps eligible households pay heating and cooling bills. The cuts hit the Administration for Children and Families, the office inside the Department of Health and Human Services that runs LIHEAP. NBC News put the number at 10 employees, citing people familiar with the cuts rather than an official count. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents every state LIHEAP director, states on its own website that the fired LIHEAP staff have not been rehired since, and that states now run the program with no federal training or guidance.
The National Energy Assistance Directors Association states that none of the fired employees has been rehired.
Show the numbers
| Fired April 1, 2025 | 10 |
| Rehired since | 0 |
What the fired employees did, and why it matters
A letter the association sent Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on April 15, 2025, read in full for this article, describes exactly what the fired staff did every day. They ran the formula that decides how much money each state gets, conducted audits and tracked the funds. With no one left at the federal level to check the numbers a state reports or catch an error before money moves, the program now runs on trust rather than review.
Ultimately, I believe the program will crumble from within without the federal office there to manage it.
Andrew Germain, Then director of fiscal operations and accountability at the Administration for Children and Families, fired the same day this quote describes. Source 4.
The money moved slower without anyone left to send it
The same letter pressed HHS to release the last 10% of the 2025 program year funding, 378 million dollars, no later than May 1, 2025, money the association and the National Consumer Law Center both said had still not reached states weeks after the firings. HHS released the remaining 2025 funds, a total of 401.5 million dollars, on April 30, 2025, letting states draw the money starting May 1, 2025. Congress then set the 2026 program year appropriation at 4.045 billion dollars, an increase of only 20 million dollars over the 2025 total, which this article calculates at 4.025 billion dollars from that stated increase, since the association page does not state the earlier total directly.
The 2025 program year total, 4,025 million dollars, is this calculation, the 2026 total the association states minus the 20 million dollar increase it states over the prior year.
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| Released April 30, 2025 | 401.5 |
| 2025 program year total | 4,025 |
| 2026 program year total | 4,045 |
What 6.2 million households lose without federal staff
LIHEAP serves about 6.2 million low income households a year, paying for heating, cooling and emergency help such as fixing a broken furnace, according to the National Consumer Law Center and NBC News. The same association letter cites a Census Bureau survey finding that 37.4% of families earning less than 50,000 dollars a year reported being unable to pay an energy bill at least once in the past 12 months, the population LIHEAP exists to help now running with no one left at the federal level to answer a question or approve a formula.
It's critical that HHS ensure there is no disruption to the administration of the LIHEAP program in order to protect families during future hot summers and cold winters.
Olivia Wein, Senior Attorney, National Consumer Law Center. Source 3.