Legislators press HHS on administration of LIHEAP funds

A group of legislators recently raised questions about the diversion of funds from the energy assistance program to households without heating costs to inflate benefit levels in some states.

Reps. Fred Upton (R-Mich.) and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.) were among the legislators who questioned what the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has done to prevent states from diverting Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funding to Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program (SNAP) households to inflate benefit levels.

Prior to enactment of the farm bill, some states were making nominal LIHEAP payments, sometimes as low as 10 cents per year, to some SNAP households without utility expenses to make them eligible for a standard utility allowance (SUA) under SNAP.

A farm bill provision required that LIHEAP payments total at least $20 before a household qualifies for a SUA when calculating benefits under SNAP. A number of states, however, indicated they would continue to divert LIHEAP funding to maintain higher SNAP benefit levels.

Lucas, the chairman of the House Agriculture Committee, said HHS must hold states accountable when administering federal programs with federal dollars.

“We will continue our oversight efforts of both the U.S. Department of Agriculture and HHS to ensure that LIHEAP and SNAP are carried out as Congress intended when it wrote the law,” Lucas said. “Both agencies must ensure that their respective programs are serving their intended recipients according to the law, or Congress will be forced to legislate.”

The legislators requested information on what HHS has done to prevent the diversion of LIHEAP funds.

“LIHEAP is a very important program to help low-income households pay their energy bills,” Upton, the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said. “We need to make certain that LIHEAP funds aren’t being abused or diverted to other purposes.”