News Media Contact: Sandra Padgett, spadgett@moconsumers.org
Yesterday, the federal government terminated the entire staff of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association. LIHEAP provides about $4 billion to help millions of Americans with their heating and cooling bills and is essential to enabling many low-income Missourians to heat their homes in the winter months and cool their homes.
“It will definitely hamper program operations,” Wolfe said, noting that he doesn’t see how the agency can “allocate the remaining $387 million in funds for this year without federal staff. The program could well grind to a halt.”
For more information see:
https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/01/health/staff-cuts-at-federal-health-agencies-have-begun/index.html
“Any cuts to LIHEAP will be detrimental to Missourians who are already struggling to keep up with increasing electric and gas bills,” said Sandra Padgett, Executive Director of Consumers Council of Missouri. “Ameren, Spire and Liberty currently have rate requests pending and SB4 is projected to add an additional annual $1,115 to household annual energy costs if signed by Governor Kehoe.”
