Help us defend our right to abortion, protect and expand Title IX, secure new investments in child care, and so much more.
If you give $25 or more, we’ll send you this FREE Title IX tote.
Help us defend our right to abortion, protect and expand Title IX, secure new investments in child care, and so much more.
If you give $25 or more, we’ll send you this FREE Title IX tote.
Now every gift MATCHED, up to $50,000, but only until midnight on June 30.
President Donald Trump seems to think that making “America First” means putting families out in the cold. The Trump “skinny budget” lacks the detail found in a full budget and fails to discuss his plans on taxes or mandatory spending programs such as Medicare or Medicaid, but what he does say spells disaster for families. For instance, Trump’s budget would eliminate the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, which helps families pay their heating bills in bitter cold winter months or cooling in the sweltering summer heat. LIHEAP provides short-term assistance to low-income people who cannot afford the seasonal spikes in energy costs, who need to restore heat, or whose heating or cooling equipment needs repair. Over three-quarters of these homes have at least one elderly person, a person with disabilities, or a young child. LIHEAP prevents families from having to choose between paying for heating or buying food.
Helping households afford heating and cooling often saves lives. In 2014, a CDC study found that about 2,000 people die every year in United States due to weather-related causes. Only 6 percent of these deaths are attributable to floods, severe storms, tornadoes, hurricanes, or lightning. The majority – 63 percent – were caused by cold weather and the remaining 31 percent were caused by hot weather. The study also found that weather-related deaths were more likely in rural areas, where residents are isolated or may have access to fewer services. And the weather-related death rate more than doubled for households with incomes below $36,000, as compared to households with incomes over $49,000.
Despite the critical assistance that LIHEAP provides to low-income families, President Trump proposes eliminating the program. Eliminating the program would put 6.3 million households out in the cold. That’s households in all 50 states, including many states in the Northeast and Midwest:
No family should have to decide between heating and eating, and the President’s budget should not leave millions of the most vulnerable Americans out in the cold.