The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has fired all of the workers in its program that seeks to help low-income Americans pay their energy bills.
Everyone who had been working on the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program was let go on Tuesday, according to now-former employee Andrew Germain.
“Every single federal staff member that worked on LIHEAP was let go, so there are no federal staff members left to work on the program,” Germain told The Hill.
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He said that prior to both probationary cuts and the latest round of firings, there had been about 15 people working on LIHEAP.
The program doles out funds to states, which in turn use the money to help people pay to heat and cool their homes and prevent utilities from shutting off the air or heat.
According to Germain, all of the staff who worked on Social Services Block Grants, which help states and territories pay for social services that protect people, including children, from neglect and abuse, were also let go.
The firings come as HHS fired thousands of people as part of the Trump administration’s efforts to cut staffing for federal agencies. A press release from the agency said that HHS was letting go of 10,000 people on top of another 10,000 staffers who were lost to prior efforts to reduce jobs.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in a written statement. “This Department will do more – a lot more – at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
Germain said that of the currently appropriated funds, 90 percent had already left the agency, but the remaining 10 percent – about $400 million – had yet to be allocated.
“With no staff there to run the formula, no staff there to administer the award, I don’t know how that money will go out,” he said.
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LIHEAP supporters raised concerns about the potential hold-up of funding that Congress allocated to assist low-income Americans – especially with summer heat approaching.
“The question becomes, ‘if there’s no program staff, do you still allocate the funds to the states?’ or do you say, ‘Well, sorry, there’s no program staff. I guess we can’t give you the money,’” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. “If that’s not the intent, then you’re causing havoc to a program that helps over 6 million very poor families heat and cool their homes. There’s no precedent for this.”
“My fear is that quietly in their homes, grandmothers will die this summer,” said Katrina Metzler, executive director of the National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition.
