The Trump administration has laid off the entire staff of a $4.1 billion program that helps millions of low-income households pay for heat during the winter, unnerving state officials who are now wondering whether they will still receive millions of dollars in expected federal payments.
The roughly two dozen workers who ran the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program were among 10,000 people fired as part of a dramatic restructuring of the Department of Health and Human Services, according to Mark Wolfe, executive director of the National Energy Assistance Directors Association.
He said several senior employees who oversee the program, which serves about 6.2 million households annually, told him they were locked out of their building after arriving to work Monday.
“The way they did it, there was no like warning,” he said.
On Thursday, 13 U.S. senators, including two Republicans, sent a letter to Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. urging the administration to reverse its decision to cut the LIHEAP staff. They warned the terminations will undermine the agency's ability to provide a “crucial lifeline” for low-income seniors and families.
The program had already delivered the bulk of its aid to the states for this fiscal year but had yet to distribute $378 million.
It also helps households pay for the cost of air conditioning during sweltering summer months.
When asked about the fate of LIHEAP and the outstanding payments, Emily Hilliard, deputy press secretary for HHS, said in a statement: “HHS will continue to comply with statutory requirements, and as a result of the reorganization, will be better positioned to execute on Congress’s statutory intent.”
Speaking about the broader overhaul of his agency, Kennedy has said it needs to be “recalibrated."
Without any staff in place, states are questioning how and if they will get the rest of their money, especially for upcoming summer cooling programs.
“Will we receive our remaining funds? If we don’t, some states will not run their cooling programs this summer. They’ll scale them back,” Wolfe said.
State officials involved in distributing aid said they are concerned LIHEAP will collapse without federal support.
“Emails bounce back from people that we have worked with for many years, who are deeply knowledgeable of the program,” said Peter Hadler, deputy director of the Connecticut Department of Social Services, noting his state is still owed $8 million.
In Minnesota, where the northern part of the state received a foot of snow Wednesday, the state's Department of Commerce predicted that by mid-April it will run out of money to help new applicants seeking help with heating and electric bills.
The state had been expecting an additional $12 million to $13 million in federal funding, already approved by Congress. Those funds would help more than 10,000 households pay their utility bills and prevent power shutoffs. About 130,000 Minnesota households receive assistance each year through LIHEAP.
“Winter is still happening in Minnesota. It snowed yesterday,” said Pete Wyckoff, deputy commissioner of energy resources at the department. “We do need that extra money to come through to get us through the rest of the winter season.”
Eligibility can differ by state, as well as the specific services provided. In general, the program assists families in covering utility bills or the cost of paying for home heating oil. It has received bipartisan congressional support for decades.
Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the two Republicans who signed on to the letter imploring Kennedy to reverse any staffing or funding cuts that would jeopardize the program.
FILE - Paul Dorion, a driver for the Downeast Energy, delivers heating oil to a home in Portland, Maine, Jan. 14, 2015. (AP Photo/Robert F. Bukaty, File)
NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian police have arrested a 24-year-old American Youtuber who visited an off-limits island in the Indian ocean and left an offering of a Diet Coke can and a coconut in an attempt to make contact with an isolated tribe known for attacking intruders.
Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, from Scottsdale, Arizona, was arrested on March 31, two days after he set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel Island — part of India’s Andaman and Nicobar Islands — in a bid to meet people from the reclusive Sentinelese tribe, police said.
A local court last week sent Polyakov to a 14-day judicial custody and he is set to appear again in the court on April 17. The charges carry a possible sentence of up to five years in prison and a fine. Indian authorities said they had informed the U.S. Embassy about the case.
Visitors are banned from traveling within 3 miles (5 kilometres) of the island, whose population has been isolated from the rest of the world for thousands of years. The inhabitants use spears and bows and arrows to hunt the animals that roam the small, heavily forested island. Deeply suspicious of outsiders, they attack anyone who lands onto their beaches.
In 2018, an American missionary who landed illegally on the beach was killed by North Sentinel islanders who apparently shot him with arrows and then buried his body on the beach. In 2006, the Sentinelese had killed two fishermen who had accidentally landed on the shore.
Indian officials have limited contacts to rare “gift-giving” encounters, with small teams of officials and scientists leaving coconuts and bananas for the islanders. Indian ships also monitor the waters around the island, trying to ensure outsiders do not go near the Sentinelese, who have repeatedly made clear they want to be left alone.
Police said Polyakov was guided by GPS navigation during his journey and surveyed the island with binoculars before landing. He stayed on the beach for about an hour, blowing a whistle to attract the attention but got no response from the islanders.
He later left a can of Diet Coke and a coconut as an offering, made a video on his camera, and collected some sand samples before returning to his boat.
On his return he was spotted by local fishermen, who informed the authorities and Polyakov was arrested in Port Blair, the capital of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, an archipelago nearly 750 miles (1,207 kilometres) east of India’s mainland. A case was registered against him for violation of Indian laws that prohibit any outsider to interact with the islanders.
Police said Polyakov had conducted detailed research on sea conditions, tides and accessibility to the island before starting his journey.
“He planned meticulously over several days to visit the island and make a contact with the Sentinel tribe,” Senior Police Officer Hargobinder Singh Dhaliwal said.
In a statement, police said Polyakov's "actions posed a serious threat to the safety and well-being of the Sentinelese people, whose contact with outsiders is strictly prohibited by the law to protect their indigenous way of life."
An initial investigation revealed Polyakov had made two previous attempts, in October last year and January, to visit the islands, including in an inflatable kayak.
Police said Polyakov was drawn to the island due to his passion for adventure and extreme challenges, and was fascinated by the mystique of the Sentinelese people.
Survival International, a group that protects the rights of Indigenous peoples, said Polyakov’s attempted contact with the tribes of North Sentinel was “reckless and idiotic.”
“This person’s actions not only endangered his own life, they put the lives of the entire Sentinelese tribe at risk,” the group’s director Caroline Pearce said in a statement.
FILE – Clouds hang over the North Sentinel Island, in India's southeastern Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Nov. 14, 2005. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh, File)
