FRANKFORT, Ky. (LEX NEWS) — More than 150,000 Kentucky households depend on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, and some state lawmakers are calling on Kentucky to step in if federal funding disappears.
The program, known as LIHEAP, helps eligible households pay for heating and cooling costs. It is currently funded, but has been repeatedly challenged by the Trump administration.
Some Kentucky Democrats warn that if the program is cut, thousands of families could be left without air conditioning during extreme summer heat waves and without heat during freezing winter conditions — particularly impacting seniors and children.
State Representatives Adam Moore and Erica Hancock say their concerns grew after the last meeting of the Interim Joint Committee on Natural Resources and Energy, where they received an update on the program's future.
"They told us that the president's proposed budget would totally eliminate it, but also what is most concerning to me is that we agreed by voice vote to a statement of facts and one of those facts was that the state of Kentucky will not make up any shortfall in federal funding for the program. So, if it's totally eliminated, that means not one penny would go to those Kentuckians who are currently being kept a little bit cool in the summer and a little bit warm in the winters - especially those seniors, those kids," Moore said.
Moore and Hancock say if federal funding goes away, Kentucky can and should step in.
"We have the money to fund this program. We have a rainy day fund that has the money to fill in these gaps that are coming from the administration on a federal level," Hancock said.
