Sponsors (5)
The bill directs modest, targeted federal funds to fix pre-weatherization barriers and enable more low-income homes to be fully weatherized—improving energy savings and program targeting—while tightening per-unit limits, narrowing eligibility language, and adding administrative and budgetary trade-offs that could reduce assistance or cause implementation delays.
Low-income households: Provides a new federal funding stream (~$30M/year for FY2026–2030) to fix pre-weatherization structural hazards so more low-income homes can receive full weatherization upgrades.
Low-income households in high-cost areas: Allows per-unit assistance waivers when local market costs rise, reducing denials of weatherization work and increasing the chance homes receive full upgrades.
State governments: Creates a dedicated, targeted federal funding stream and clarifies program metrics (e.g., what 'fully weatherized' means and updated per-unit limits), helping states administer remediation and better target repairs.
Low-income households and renters: The statutory per-unit cap appears lowered (from $6,500 to $5,000), which could reduce assistance per dwelling and leave some necessary measures unfunded unless waivers are routinely granted.
Taxpayers/government budgets: Authorizes roughly $30M/year in federal spending (FY2026–2030), increasing federal expenditures and adding budgetary pressure.
Low-income households: Changing eligibility language from 'partially weatherized' to 'fully weatherized' narrows who qualifies and could exclude units that previously got partial support.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Creates a Weatherization Readiness Fund with $30M/year (FY2026–2030) and revises WAP per-unit cost limits, terminology, and Secretary waiver authority for higher costs.
Official title: Amend the Energy Conservation and Production Act to improve the weatherization assistance program, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 8, 2025 by John F. Reed · Last progress April 8, 2025
Creates a Weatherization Readiness Fund and changes how Weatherization Assistance Program (WAP) per-unit cost limits and eligibility language work. It authorizes $30 million per year for FY2026–2030 to help states pay for repairs that fix structural defects or hazards that currently prevent installation of weatherization measures, and it revises numeric per-unit ceilings and terminology in existing WAP statutes while giving the Secretary limited authority to raise per-unit assistance when market conditions require it. The bill also replaces language about partially weatherized units with “fully weatherized,” raises a $3,000 figure to $6,000, renumbers an internal cross-reference, and contains a contested numeric edit that appears intended to change a $6,500 per-unit cap to $5,000 (the text includes a typographical artifact that would be treated as a substantive change if enacted).