As winter knocks, and the shutdown drags on, poor families may have to ration heat

This story was originally published by the Guardian and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration.

Millions of Americans face having to ration heating this winter as the US federal government shutdown and mass layoffs by the Trump administration cause unprecedented delays in getting energy assistance aid to low-income households, a group that helps people pay energy bills has warned.

Congress approved about $4 billion for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), after Trump’s proposal to cancel the life-saving heating and cooling scheme in this year’s budget was ultimately unsuccessful.

But with winter fast approaching, lawmakers have failed to reach a funding deal and appropriations remain stalled, which threaten to leave the most vulnerable families without critical energy aid as electricity and gas bills surge.

“No family should be forced to choose between heat and food because of a federal funding delay,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association (NEADA), which represents the state directors of LIHEAP. “If the money isn’t released soon, it will cause real harm and people will suffer.”

LIHEAP is a chronically underfunded bipartisan program that helped almost 6 million households keep on top of energy bills last year, reaching only 17 percent of those eligible for assistance even before the current chaos.

Due to the seasonal nature of the program, previous administrations have typically allowed 90 percent of the LIHEAP funds to be distributed by the end of October—even while lawmakers wrangled over the annual appropriations bill.

This is year is different thanks to Trump’s “department of government efficiency” (DOGE). Even if the continuing resolution—or short-term spending fix—were to be agreed this week, states and tribes would probably not receive the funds until early December at the earliest due to unprecedented staff shortages.

Earlier this year, the entire staff running the decades-old bipartisan program was fired—as part of the Trump administration’s so-called “efficiency” drive which was overseen by the billionaire Republican donor Elon Musk.

This left no technical staff to apply the funding formula, which determines how much each state and tribe receives, and approve states’ plans on how the money will be allocated to households. The Guardian understands that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) led by Robert F Kennedy Jr. had been using external paid consultants and staff from other programs, some of whom were fired earlier this month.

With no indication that the government shutdown will end any time soon, the NEADA is urging utilities to immediately suspend disconnections for overdue bills—until the federal chaos is resolved and LIHEAP funds are released. “Utilities must act in the public interest and pause shutoffs until federal aid is available again,” said Wolfe.

In the first eight months of this year, New York’s monopoly energy provider alone disconnected 111,000 households. The national total is expected to hit 4 million shutoffs in 2025—up from 3 million in 2023, according to analysis of utility-reported data.

Trump declared a national energy emergency on his first day back in office, pledging to ramp up fossil-fuel production and slash regulations to bring consumer energy bills down.

In the past year, electricity bills have risen more than 15 percent in 10 states plus the District of Columbia, with the highest jumps in Illinois (28 percent), Indiana (25 percent) and JD Vance’s home state of Ohio (23 percent). The price hike is mostly down to the rising cost of fossil gas, utilities passing on the cost of investment in transmission and distribution systems to consumers, and the rapid unchecked growth of datacenters, which is increasing demand for electricity.

According to NEADA research, the cost of home-heating this winter is expected to rise by an average of 7.6 percent, increasing from $907 last winter to an estimated $976 this year.

About 21 million households—one in six—are currently behind on their energy bills. Household energy arrears rose by more than 30 percent, from $17.5 billion in December 2023 to $23 billion by June 2025.

A health department spokesperson said in a statement: “The Democrat-led shutdown is preventing states from receiving new funds under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The Trump Administration is committed to reopening the government for the American people.”