Sec. 2. Findings
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Congress finds that: Energy remains unaffordable for low-income households. Nationally, low-income households spend a larger portion of their income on home energy costs than other households. While the average energy burden for non-low-income households is approximately 3 percent, low-income households experience energy burdens that are 3 times higher, with 1 in 4 low-income households spending more than 15 percent of their income on energy bills. The report for the Household Pulse Survey of the Bureau of the Census, issued on October 3, 2024, noted that, for families with incomes of less than $35,000 a year, about 54 percent said that they reduced or went without basic household necessities, such as medicine or food, in order to pay an energy bill, for at least one month in the last year.
The Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program was authorized by Congress to reduce home energy burdens with heating and cooling assistance. In 2023, only 18 percent of income-eligible households received a subsidy under the program. Climate change is fueling increasingly intense winter storms, frequent hurricanes and wildfires, and extreme temperatures. Over the past 2 decades, the United States has seen a 135 percent increase in billion-dollar winter disasters, fueled by climate change, rising from 31 of those disasters from 1985 through 2004, to 73 of those disasters from 2005 through 2024.
Heat waves are increasingly common as climate change accelerates, and now occur more often in major cities across the United States. According to reports from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, 2024 was the hottest year on record in Earth’s history. The average heat wave season across 50 cities is approximately 46 days longer now than it was in the 1960s, and the American Medical Association found that heat-related deaths have increased by over 16 percent per year since 2016.
However, in fiscal year 2023, less than 3 percent of income-eligible households received cooling assistance under the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, with only 7 percent of funding from the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program going toward cooling needs. As a result, the Federal Government should provide further cooling assistance for communities in need. As a result of rising home energy bills and insufficient Federal funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, residential utility arrears, or the amount of funds owed by households to their utilities, has climbed to an all-time high of over $21,000,000,000 as of September 2024, with over 21,000,000 households in debt to electric utilities and over 15,000,000 households in debt to natural gas companies.
Nearly 1 out of every 7 households is behind on their electric or gas bill. While most States have shutoff protections that prevent utility companies from disconnecting a customer’s energy service during the coldest winter months, 10 States have no winter shutoff protections, and 29 States have no summer shutoff protections. Even in certain States with winter or summer shutoff protections, shutoffs continue to increase as the period around the hottest and coldest months lengthens.
The loss of home energy service due to high energy burdens is one of the primary reasons for homelessness, especially for families with children. In some housing contexts, loss of home energy service is a grounds for eviction. The Federal Government should expand and update the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, as part of a robust Federal social safety net, to— protect families against unaffordable home energy bills and home energy shutoffs, by providing sufficient funding and imposing regulations where necessary; ensure all low- and moderate-income families have access to affordable home cooling powered by renewable energy, which will enable households to adapt to rising temperatures due to climate change and promote climate and energy resiliency; enhance timely and meaningful public participation and outreach— by including nontraditional partners, including home energy suppliers, local educational agencies, and entities carrying out other programs for low-income people, to assist with signups; and by adding stronger provisions for presumed eligibility and waiving documentation requirements for eligibility; and further Federal efforts to weatherize housing for low- and moderate-income households, to help families struggling to pay their home energy bills and to meet national clean energy goals.