Administration again wants to cut energy assistance to the poor

PORTLAND, MAINE >> The Trump administration is once again calling for the complete elimination of a heating assistance program that helps to keep the homes of low-income families warm. And once again, program supporters are vowing to fight it.

The administration is using the same arguments from a year ago when it tried to abolish the program, saying it’s rife with fraud and that no one would be left freezing if the program goes away.

“These arguments are very misleading and wrong,” said Mark Wolfe, director of the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association in Washington, D.C.

The program, known as LIHEAP — Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program — helps families pay their heating bills primarily in the form of a grant that’s sent directly to utility companies or heating fuel vendors.

President Donald Trump tried to eradicate the program last year, but encountered resistance in Congress. In October, he released nearly $3 billion, or roughly 90 percent, of the funding.

Critics say that money won’t go as far as in past years because of rising prices.

Nonetheless program supporters say LIHEAP is a lifeline for the elderly, disabled and others on fixed incomes.

“If the president turned around and did away with that funding, I have no idea how we’d survive in the winter,” said Dwayne LaBrecque, a diabetic who is on disability after losing several toes and part of his foot to infection.

LaBrecque’s income plummeted when he lost his job as a shipping manager, leaving him to cobble together an existence for himself, his fiancée and their five children in the rural Maine town of Hartford. The family received about $1,000 in heating assistance this winter, and that money is already gone.

The Trump supporter said he hopes the president has a change of heart. He said he won’t be voting for Trump again if he succeeds in killing off the program.

The president’s 2019 budget was released Feb. 12 and would cut other social programs like federal housing assistance and the food stamp program, in addition to eliminating heating aid.