‘Callous and cruel’: Maine lawmakers react to firing of heating assistance program workers
By Francis Flisiuk
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WASHINGTON, DC (WMTW) — All of the federal workers who administer Maine’s Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program are among the 10,000 Department of Health and Human Services staffers terminated this week by the Trump administration, according to two Democratic representatives.
The program known as LIHEAP helps about 51,000 Mainers with their heating and cooling costs.
It’s unclear how the firing of the program’s staff will impact the administering of the roughly $387 million in remaining funds, which Rep. Chellie Pingree notes has already been allocated by Congress.
“This one just galls me,” Pingree said in a video posted on her Instagram. “You actually need people who can decide how to get that money out. That probably means that they are probably just getting rid of this program.”
Pingree called the layoffs “callous and cruel” and said they would effectively “force families to choose between heating their home and putting food on the table.”
The layoffs are part of a dramatic reduction in staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. said last Thursday would impact 10,000 full-time employees. The move is part of the Trump administration’s broader effort to downsize government and make it more responsive and efficient.
“We aren’t just reducing bureaucratic sprawl. We are realigning the organization with its core mission and our new priorities in reversing the chronic disease epidemic,” Kennedy said. “This Department will do more—a lot more—at a lower cost to the taxpayer.”
Rep. Jared Golden took to X for his reaction and questioned Tuesday, “What efficiency is achieved by firing everyone in Maine whose job is to help Mainers afford heating oil when it’s cold?”
It’s unclear how many federal staff were fired and how their terminations might impact operations in Maine. The Executive Director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association says “it’s not the end of LIHEAP” noting that Congress has already appropriated funding for it for a full year.
A spokesperson for MaineHousing, which is one of several organizations that handles LIHEAP requests, said they hadn’t received any official word from the U.S. DHHS as of Tuesday night.
MaineHousing stopped processing new applications for assistance on March 28, citing current funding projections, and moved them to a waitlist.
The layoffs also come amid the slashing of $11 billion of federal public health funding, which prompted Maine to sue the Trump administration Tuesday and argue that the cuts are illegal and will result in “serious harm to public health.”
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