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Congressional Daily Record
This section covers nominations, confirmations, or other executive branch business. It mentions members such as Peter Welch.
Official title: Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (Executive Session)
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April 27, 2026
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Download official Senate Record PDFReturn to issue contextMr. WELCH. Madam President, the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, known as LIHEAP, is a lifesaving program with a long history of bipartisan support from its very first days. LIHEAP was started in the administration of Ronald Reagan, and the program helps people in need heat their homes in the winter and cool their homes in the summer.
in many places, it is still very cold and still very hot. LIHEAP was established, as I mentioned, in 1981, by President Ronald Reagan, and it provides funding to States to help low-income households with their energy costs. The program originally just covered heating, but in 1984, it was expanded to cooling, as it should be, because people in the Presiding Officer's State, people in Arizona, Nevada, and many other States are threatened by extreme heat, just as those in cold-weather States, like Vermont, are threatened by extreme cold.
and I am so pleased that it has always been bipartisan, because the folks we represent, whether it is in cold- or warm-weather States, know that people need the security that they are not going to freeze to death or that they are not going to die of heatstroke. And that happens; that is real.
winter and cool their homes in the summer are very scared. They need help, and their neighbors and friends need help and assurance that this program will continue.
heating bills, we are talking about folks who are barely able to pay their bills at the end of the month and often can't. And, again, this is in the Presiding Officer's State and in my State.
For a family of four, the eligibility limit is $61,000. For a single mother and a child, it is $40,000. For a single person just trying to get by, it is $29,000.
are thinking about neighbors across the country are concerned about this. I had a constituent from Essex, VT, urging me to protect LIHEAP because “I know it gets awfully cold in North Dakota and . . . Minnesota.”
cases, they themselves need this. This is not a luxury. It can be a matter of life and death for hundreds of thousands of Americans, from Montpelier to Fairbanks, AK.
years, with more than 20 straight days of below freezing temperatures. In Fairbanks, Alaskans endured more than 89 days below zero, many days below 30 to 40 degrees below zero.
weather climates, like Phoenix, AZ, where more than 100 days a year saw temperatures of 100 degrees.
who have a program to provide assistance, and what I know is, Vermonters, when they see that fuel truck show up, are terrified because that is a big, big monthly bill. And without the assistance that we have been providing to people around the country to help them with this, they literally are facing freezing or heatstroke.
cooling bills. In December, household energy bills were up by more than 13 percent. The war in Iran has absolutely exacerbated that problem. Gas prices are up more than 30 percent, over $4 a gallon. They are approaching $5 a gallon. More and more commentators believe that the Strait of Hormuz will be closed for much longer, indefinitely. We don't know when. And that is also going to continue the pressure on the price of home heating fuel.
President Trump, on the one hand, is zeroing out the home heating assistance program, and cooling assistance as well, but on the other hand, is pursuing policies that are driving up energy costs, as we saw and are seeing with the war in Iran, which has closed the Strait of Hormuz and is crippling the economy but is leading directly to higher home heating fuel costs.
characterize as cruel and totally “out of it” by some of his advisers. Kevin Hassett made a very telling remark to CNBC. Here is what he said:
While it's very frustrating to go to the pump and see what
the price of gasoline looks like . . . the benefit for oil
producers is significant.
Seriously? What about your constituents and mine, who are paying the price that is of benefit to the oil producers and then find out that the home heating and cooling assistance help that they had last year is going to be zeroed out this year. That is absolutely outrageous.
The price goes up. It is painful for consumers and for businesses and for farmers, but it is a windfall for the oil companies.
President Trump has made it clear what his priority is. It is accelerating the profits for the oil industry at the expense of people who have absolutely no control over what the price is at the pump, what the price is when that home heating gas or oil is being delivered to their homes.
families that we represent in our States, and I am fighting for Vermont families. Last week, Senator Reed and I filed an amendment to the Republican budget resolution that would protect LIHEAP from this zeroing out in the Trump budget.
The amendment was not adopted. But I will keep fighting, and I hope many of my colleagues will join me to protect LIHEAP so that there can be some reassurance to the people who are going to be hammered and threatened by the zeroing out of this program.
the administration's attempts to zero out the LIHEAP budget and illegally fire the staff that oversees the disbursement of LIHEAP funding to the States. That is why we included report language in the fiscal year 2026 bill to require that funds that are allocated to States be distributed on a timely basis. And that is true in Alabama, and it is true in Vermont.
this fuel assistance is available to families, regardless of whom they voted for, regardless of policy orientation, and regardless of politics.
This is not a red State or blue State issue. Americans everywhere are paying for the reckless economic policies in this illegal war, and this war is imposing substantial and daily and punitive costs on struggling Americans, struggling farmers, and struggling businesses.
You know, Texas receives about $181 million in LIHEAP funding, and it helps 65,000 households; in Nebraska, $32 million, 53,000 households.
has said it loud and clear. It is plain before our eyes. They are willing to throw Americans out in the cold or in the heat and are quite content with a $30 million-an-hour windfall for the oil companies.
work together to save and preserve the LIHEAP program, which is a lifeline for so many people you represent and I represent.
I yield the floor.
(Mr. LANKFORD assumed the Chair.)
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mrs. Britt). The Senator from Kansas.