With massive cuts in federal spending being ordered by the Trump administration, there is concern about the future of LIHEAP.
LIHEAP stands for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which provides funds to low-income Americans to pay their heating and cooling bills.
Among those who is concerned about LIHEAP is Congressman Eric Sorensen, a Democrat who represents the 17th District of Illinois. The district includes the Kewanee area.
Sorensen was in Kewanee Thursday on a “listening tour,” visiting several downtown businesses to find out about their concerns. The Kewanee Voice asked him about LIHEAP, and he said he is one of five representatives who signed a letter to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging that the funding not be cut.
The letter said, “As you know, on April 1, 2025, approximately 10,000 employees at HHS received notice that they had been placed on administrative leave until June 2, 2025, after which their position would be terminated. These layoffs included the entirety of the team at the Office of Community Services within the Office of the Administration for Children and Families, which leads dozens of programs, including LIHEAP. It has been reported that these terminations were also a surprise to the state-level LIHEAP administrators who distribute the program’s aid dollars to families in their communities.”
The letter said LIHEAP “is vital for millions of families,” and added that “More than 25 million American households report foregoing food and medicine to pay their energy bills, and of those, 7 million households report that they face that decision every month.”
Though the 25 federal employees who administer LIHEAP and face the loss of their jobs is “only a small fraction of the announced layoffs,” the letter said, they administer billions of LIHEAP dollars.
Each year people in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, five U.S. territories and about 150 tribes apply for LIHEAP funds. LIHEAP also “supported 1.4 million households in crisis assistance,” the letter said. “This is not funding that can wait; a team must be in place to support this program’s work.”
The letter told Kennedy that “Gutting this program’s staff is a reckless and irresponsible decision which may cost these families’ lives. We urge you to immediately reverse this decision and do all you can to support the work of this vital program.”
The LIHEAP program is administered in the Kewanee area by Project NOW in Rock Island, which serves three counties, Rock Island, Mercer and Henry.
Sorensen was in Kewanee to visit five downtown businesses.
Accompanied by Mayor Gary Moore and several members of Sorensen’s congressional staff, the congressman made a walking tour of the downtown and met with Teresa Mirocha at Hillside Florist, Bill Breedlove at Breedlove’s Sporting Goods, Kaleigh and Phil Good of Good’s Furniture, Rick Johnson at Johnson’s Hub and Tiffany Bockewitz at Blissful Branch Boutique.
