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Creates a new federally funded Weatherization Readiness Program to help make low-income homes physically ready for weatherization work (fixing structural, plumbing, roofing, electrical, and environmental hazards) and changes several Weatherization Assistance Program rules. The Secretary must set up the new program within one year, may fund states and tribal organizations, and is authorized $50 million per year for FY2026–FY2030; administrative costs are capped at 15% of each grant (no single State may use more than half of that cap). Also revises statutory language governing the existing weatherization program: it removes a paragraph on renewable energy systems, tightens limits on reweatherization (removing references to coordination with other federal assistance), deletes a subsection of current law, and replaces a statutory average cost-per-unit figure (striking $6,500 and inserting "2,000", which appears to be an unintended numeric change). The bill allows the Secretary to align program requirements with existing weatherization rules, set average cost-per-unit limits for readiness measures, and revisit allocation methods after October 1, 2029.
The bill increases targeted funding and simplifies rules to get more homes repaired and ready for weatherization, but does so while lowering the apparent allowable per-home spending, removing renewable-installation authorization, and introducing statutory drafting uncertainties that could limit the depth of upgrades and slow implementation.
Low-income households (renters and homeowners) will receive grants to repair structural, plumbing, roofing, electrical, and environmental problems so their homes can be weatherized and become more energy-efficient and safe.
Low-income households and state/tribal programs will get an additional $50 million per year (FY2026–2030) for readiness upgrades, increasing upfront resources to enable housing repairs that make weatherization possible.
States and grant programs will be limited to modest administrative overhead (15% per grant, max 7.5% per State), so a larger share of funds must be spent on actual repairs rather than bureaucracy.
Low-income households and state programs could face much smaller per-home spending because the statutory average cost-per-unit appears reduced from $6,500 to $2,000, which may prevent deeper energy and health-related upgrades.
Homeowners and low-income households may lose access to funding or authorization for on-site renewable energy installations because the bill removes the renewable energy systems paragraph.
State programs and low-income households could face reduced flexibility for follow-up upgrades because deleting coordination/assistance references tightens reweatherization limits and may prevent leveraging other federal or non-federal programs.
Introduced February 13, 2025 by Paul Tonko · Last progress February 13, 2025