LIHEAP got 4.045 billion dollars for 2026, and weatherization assistance funding grew to 369 million dollars

How much money LIHEAP got for 2026

Two separate spending bills decided how much money the two biggest federal home energy programs get for 2026, and both survived a year that also brought a proposal to end one of them completely. The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, called LIHEAP, pays part of a low income household heating and cooling bill. The Building Performance Association, a trade group that tracked the bill line by line as lawmakers wrote it, reports that a spending law President Trump signed on February 3, 2026 provides 4.045 billion dollars for LIHEAP, a 20 million dollar increase from fiscal year 2025. Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, the group representing every state LIHEAP office, testified to a House Appropriations subcommittee.

The current funding level, 4.1 billion dollars, is not enough.

Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Source 1.

The rounded number Wolfe gave in that April testimony matches the more exact 4.045 billion dollar figure the association reports for the same law, a check this site ran that shows the 2 accounts agree rather than conflict. States may also direct up to 15% of their LIHEAP dollars into their own Weatherization Assistance Program, so the 2 programs already overlap before either one is counted on its own.

Weatherization Assistance Program funding for 2026

A separate bill funds the Weatherization Assistance Program, which pays to seal and insulate the homes of low income households so they cost less to heat and cool. The Building Performance Association reports that President Trump signed this bill, a minibus package named H.R. 6938, on January 23, 2026, setting Weatherization Assistance Program funding at 369 million dollars for fiscal year 2026, a 3 million dollar increase from fiscal year 2025. That places fiscal year 2025 funding at 366 million dollars, a figure this site calculated by subtracting the stated increase, not a number the association gives directly. The same bill set funding levels for 3 more energy efficiency programs at the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, shown below.

Funding grew for every program in the same bill

None of the 4 programs in the January bill lost money for fiscal year 2026, and 3 of them grew. The Weatherization Assistance Program rose 3 million dollars against fiscal year 2025, and the State Energy Program held flat against fiscal year 2025 at 66 million dollars. Residential Buildings Integration and Energy Star, an Environmental Protection Agency program, each grew against fiscal year 2024 instead, up 5 million dollars and 1 million dollars, so the 4 figures below compare against 2 different earlier years, not all against the same one.

A threat both programs are surviving

Both programs face a bigger threat for the year after this one. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association says the administration proposal for fiscal year 2027 would eliminate all 4 billion dollars in federal LIHEAP funding, cutting off help for about 6 million low income households. The association also reports national utility debt has reached about 23 billion dollars, and projects winter heating bills will rise 8.7% this year to an average of 1,030 dollars a household, an increase of 82 dollars over last winter.

This is a warning that too many families are entering winter with no room left in their budgets.

Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. Source 3.