Wisconsin’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program Endangered?
Trump administration fired entire staff running federal energy assistance program.
Electric meter. (CC0 Public Domain).
Wisconsin’s seasonal moratorium on utility shutoffs ends Tuesday, just weeks after the Trump administration fired all of the federal employees running a program that provides energy assistance to low-income households.
On April 1, the federal government fired the entire staff administering the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program as part of a mass firing in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, according to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
The program helps pay home energy bills for more than 6.2 million low-income households each year. The national association says the firings jeopardize $378 million in Congress-approved summer assistance funding.
In Wisconsin, the federal funding is administered through the state Department of Administration’s Wisconsin Home Energy Assistance Program. The federal dollars are primarily used for heating assistance and crisis funding. Wisconsin’s program also uses state funding for energy assistance and weatherization.
About 190,000 Wisconsin households received almost $127 million to assist with monthly utility expenses through the program in the last fiscal year, state agencies reported. So far this fiscal year, nearly 155,000 households have received $89 million in aid. According to the state agencies, assistance through the program remains available, and customers behind on their bills should contact their local utility to get on a payment plan.
In an April 11 statement, state Department of Administration Secretary Kathy Blumenfeld said the agency didn’t yet know what the impact of federal cuts would be on state energy assistance programs.
“In the meantime, crisis assistance is still available for Wisconsin residents,” Blumenfeld said. “We will continue to do all we can at the state level in partnership with the Public Service Commission and others to ensure that disconnection is the last resort for any household behind on utility bills.”
Tom Content, executive director of the nonprofit Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin, said the state already has most of its federal energy assistance funds for the current fiscal year to help people when the moratorium on utility disconnection ends.
But he said he’s concerned about what the staffing cuts could mean for the program later this year and into next winter.
“If there’s nobody left to administer a program does the program just evaporate or disintegrate because nobody’s minding the store?” Content asked.
Hetti Brown is the executive director of Couleecap, a nonprofit that provides services for residents of western Wisconsin. She said her organization helps connect people with energy assistance. She said they also help people access federal financial assistance for energy-related crises, like a utility shutoff or a furnace going out in the winter.
“We are very concerned about the layoffs,” Brown said. “Because this happened so suddenly — without communication, and we’re finding it difficult to get information now — we are worried that this is a sign that the program might be at risk long-term.”
She said the federal employees working on energy assistance didn’t just distribute the funds. They also provided oversight of the program to make sure that funds were appropriately spent, provided technical training to states and agencies, and reviewed state contracts and plans, Brown said.
“Without the federal partners providing the funding, the training, technical assistance, the oversight, the rules — making sure that these programs are operated in a way that is in compliance with federal laws and regulations — it’s very difficult to know what the future of the program will be,” she said.
The uncertainty around the future of federal energy assistance comes as ratepayer advocates say more and more customers are being squeezed by rising utility bills, on top of other inflationary costs.
According to the National Energy & Utility Affordability Coalition, the roughly 190,000 Wisconsin households who received energy assistance last year represented less than a third of the roughly 616,489 eligible households.
In southeastern Wisconsin, the nonprofit Citizen Action of Wisconsin planned a rally outside of We Energies’ corporate headquarters in Milwaukee on Tuesday to coincide with the disconnection moratorium ending.
Keviea Guiden, an energy burden organizer from Milwaukee, said she helped organize the rally to highlight that the end of the moratorium will leave a lot of families “out in the cold and in the dark.” She said We Energies continues to increase rates, and it has become hard for many to afford their electric bills.
She said disconnections are not the answer because they can “upend lives.”
“It totally breaks down the dynamics of any household and any family, and brings stress and depression, as well. Folks are already burdened,” she said. “We want to just make sure that we are shedding light and saying that we need to end shutoffs.”
Guiden said many residents already struggle to access energy assistance programs, and she believes cutting federal workers won’t help the situation.
“We’re praying for better days, but it doesn’t look like any days of betterment are coming,” she said.
We Energies says utility disconnections are a last resort. In a statement last week, the company urged customers behind on their bills to get on a payment plan to avoid losing service.
Editor’s note: The Citizens Utility Board of Wisconsin is a sponsor of WPR.
Future of federal energy assistance uncertain as Wisconsin’s moratorium on utility shutoffs ends was originally published by Wisconsin Public Radio.
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