President Biden over the weekend signed into law a package of six annual appropriations bills, including one that funds the Department of Health and Human Services, which controls the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
In addition to providing permanent funding for HHS and other departments and agencies, enactment of the bill into law averted a partial government shutdown.
The House passed H.R. 2822, the Further Consolidated Appropriations Act for 2024, on March 22. The Senate passed the package on March 23 and President Biden signed it into law on the same day.
LIHEAP
The agreement includes $4.025 billion for LIHEAP. This represents a $25 million increase in the program over base funding of $4 billion in fiscal year 2023 but does not include $2 billion in supplemental funds also enacted for 2023 and that brought total appropriation for FY 2023 to $6.1 billion.
Along with $100 million in fiscal year 2024 LIHEAP funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the total funding for LIHEAP in FY 2024 will be $4.125 billion.
Of those funds, states have already received approximately $3.7 billion, meaning that once the bill is enacted into law, HHS will be able to release allocations for the remining $425 million.
Overall, the small increase in funding for LIHEAP in a year when much of the federal government faced cuts reflects the strong bipartisan support for the program in both the House and the Senate.
However, there does not appear to be progress on a supplemental spending request by President Biden – including for LIHEAP – so it appears unlikely the additional funding provided for fiscal year 2023 will be matched in 2024.
Looking to fiscal year 2025, which begins on October 1, the President's budget request released earlier this month includes $4.1 billion for LIHEAP -- so a modest decrease in the amounts appropriated for 2024.
Additionally, the request would also allow states to set aside up to 2.7 percent of their allocation for water assistance – roughly $125 million if the request is fully appropriated, meaning overall funding for energy assistance could decline if the Administration’s water assistance proposal is adopted.
However, while the Biden Administration has included this water program provision in prior years, there is little support for the proposal in Congress and it appears unlikely to advance for fiscal year 2025.
