Sponsors (11)
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Renames the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to the Home Energy Assistance Program (HEAP), creates a new 3-year HEAP "just transition" grant program to help states and localities plan and invest in lowering household energy use and shifting away from fossil fuels, and expands federal support for heating, cooling, disaster response, arrearage tracking, and state program modernization. The bill sets a new household energy-affordability goal (no more than 3% of income spent on home energy), adds definitions and emergency/heat/cold assistance rules, increases certain state fund set‑asides for energy-related home repairs and renewable access, and authorizes multi-year funding to implement these changes. The measure also updates program definitions and reporting, requires supplier and state data-sharing and shutoff / fee limits for assisted households, directs technical assistance and planning for extreme heat and retrofit activities, and requires a standardized arrearage reporting template and best-practice guidance for using assistance to address past-due utility bills.
Amend the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 by striking the first place it appears in the matter preceding paragraph (1) of section 2607A(b).
Amend the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 by striking (text indicated) in section 2607B(e)(2)(B)(ii).
Specify that any reference in any other Federal law (other than the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981), Executive order, rule, regulation, delegation of authority, or any document, to the 'Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program' shall be deemed to refer to the 'Home Energy Assistance Program'.
Amends the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981 by inserting a new section 2607C titled “HEAP just transition grants” after section 2607B (42 U.S.C. 8626b).
The Secretary and the Secretary of Energy shall jointly carry out a grant program under the new section to make grants to States and local governments to support development and implementation of interagency plans to reduce energy burdens for eligible households with high home energy use. The plans must promote energy-burden reduction in a way that supports a just transition away from fossil fuel energy and protects eligible households from climate threats.
Who is affected and how:
Low- and middle-income households: Direct benefits include more accessible heating and cooling assistance, protections from utility shutoffs and late fees, help paying arrearages, and expanded eligibility and streamlined enrollment. Households with high energy burdens or in areas with extreme heat or cold are a primary focus.
State governments and agencies: States must update procedures, data-sharing, reporting, and planning to access new grants and disaster/heat-cold assistance. They will administer expanded programs, prioritize certain uses of funds (home repairs, electrification, community solar), and produce plans/reports; some program enhancements may require upfront administrative work and coordination.
Home energy suppliers and utilities: Required to share data (as allowed), assist with outreach, and limit shutoffs or late fees for households receiving assistance. Utilities may need new systems to exchange arrearage and enrollment data with states and to honor protections for assisted customers.
Energy and retrofit industry (installers, community solar developers, manufacturers): Increased funding and prioritized use for home repairs, electrification (heat pumps, electric HVAC), and community solar should expand market demand for retrofits, renewable distribution, and related workforce needs.
Federal agencies (HHS, DOE, FEMA): Joint administration and coordination responsibilities increase, including running the just-transition grant program, coordinating disaster/heat responses, issuing guidance, and evaluating outcomes.
Overall effects: The legislation shifts emphasis toward household energy affordability and climate resilience, ties some HEAP funds to electrification and renewable access, and strengthens data and reporting on arrears and disconnections. Implementation will require state and utility operational changes, new data systems, and coordination among federal agencies, but it provides authorized funding and grants to support many of those changes.
Strikes the first occurrence of the program name in the introductory matter of subsection (b) (the definition of “leveraged resources”), renaming/referencing the program per the Act’s provision that references to the old name shall be deemed to refer to the Home Energy Assistance Program.
Strikes an occurrence (in subsection (e)(2)(B)(ii)) of the program name within that subsection, aligning the statutory text with the Act’s renaming of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program to the Home Energy Assistance Program.
Inserts a new section 2607C (HEAP just transition grants) into the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act authorizing a joint 3-year grant program, administered by the Secretary and the Secretary of Energy, to provide grants to States and local governments for development and implementation of interagency plans to reduce energy burdens for eligible households with high home energy use, including preferences and a required evaluation and report to Congress at the end of the grant period.
Amends section 2605 of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 8624) by (1) increasing household income eligibility thresholds, (2) adding an energy-burden limit and prioritization requirement, (3) adding state certification requirements for data sharing, simplified re-enrollment, prohibition on requiring proof of citizenship, and allowance for self-attestation, (4) adding a provision that assistance under this title is not a Federal public benefit for purposes of PRWORA section 401(c) and the remainder of title IV, and (5) making various paragraph redesignations and cross-reference updates and conditioning certain State application language on the added certification.
Redesignates several existing numbered paragraphs and inserts new definitions (new paragraphs (4), (5), (9), and (14)) into the definitions provision of 42 U.S.C. 8622, including definitions relating to periods of extreme heat/ extreme cold, a HEAP coordinator, local coordinating agency, and State agency.
Amends 42 U.S.C. 8621 (section 2602 of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981) by: (1) in subsection (b) expanding the parenthetical list of sections from "section 2607A)" to "section 2604(e), 2605(u), 2607A, 2607B, or 2607C)" and replacing the subsequent appropriation-amount text with a provision authorizing "such sums as may be necessary" to assist eligible households and to enable States to implement home energy affordability measures described in section 2605(b)(3); (2) in subsection (e) (first sentence) striking "$600,000,000" and inserting the text ",000,000,000 for fiscal year 2026, and ,000,000,000 plus such additional sums as may be necessary for each fiscal year thereafter,"; and (3) adding a new subsection (f) authorizing appropriations of $1,000,000,000 for fiscal year 2026 and $1,000,000,000 plus such additional sums as may be necessary for each fiscal year thereafter to carry out section 2607C, including making grants under that section.
Amends section 2604 of the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 8623) by updating a cross-reference in subsection (a)(1)(B) and substantially revising subsection (e) to add definitions (including 'covered household' and an expanded definition of 'major disaster' to include Stafford Act declarations, Public Health Service Act section 319 declarations, and periods of extreme heat or cold), to insert 'major disaster' into existing paragraph (2) language, and to add new paragraphs requiring the Secretary and the Administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency to provide heating or cooling assistance to States for covered households upon a declaration or determination and to require specified State assurances to receive such assistance.
Amends 42 U.S.C. 8629(b)(1) by replacing the listed cross-references to clauses/paragraphs of section 2605(b) with a different list of paragraph references.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced March 31, 2025 by Edward John Markey · Last progress March 31, 2025
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Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions.
Introduced in Senate