SCOTT SIMON, HOST:
Millions of Americans wake up today uncertain whether they will receive their SNAP benefits in the coming days. But the government shutdown isn't just affecting food assistance. Grants to help low-income families pay for their heating bills are also on hold. Sophia Schmidt from member station WHYY has more.
SOPHIA SCHMIDT, BYLINE: Justina Ray (ph) lives in a gray-shingled duplex just north of Philadelphia with her two kids and a black cat.
SCHMIDT: What's the kitty's name?
JUSTINA RAY: Flounder (ph).
SCHMIDT: Flounder. That's so cute.
Ray teaches preschool, and she struggles to afford her heating bills in the winter.
RAY: So my income itself comes down with all the holidays and the school closures and things like that.
SCHMIDT: For nearly a decade, Ray has relied on the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, to pay most of her winter heating bills. The program provides billions of dollars in grants to about 6 million households nationwide to help them pay their energy bills, buy fuel or fix broken heaters. The Department of Health and Human Services sends most of these funds to states around this time each year to run the program. But because of the shutdown, this hasn't happened. So Pennsylvania has delayed the start of its LIHEAP program by a month.
Hoa Pham works at Pennsylvania's Department of Human Services. She says the state has some cash on hand, but it's not enough. Pham says the state needs a guarantee that more federal funding is coming.
HOA PHAM: I would consider it really detrimental for us to start a program and then lose funding and then have to close it.
SCHMIDT: Pennsylvania is one of several states that have announced delays or disruptions to their programs due to the shutdown. A few others, like Alaska and Massachusetts, are using money left from last season to give emergency assistance. Some are preparing to use state funding to fill the gap.
MARK WOLFE: This is unprecedented.
SCHMIDT: Mark Wolfe leads the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, which represents state agencies that run LIHEAP. He says most states will need federal funding to fully open their programs. Even after the shutdown ends, Wolfe says it could take weeks for the federal government to release the funds, and he worries the process will be slow because the Trump administration fired the staff that administer LIHEAP this spring.
WOLFE: Even if they do that, we will be delayed until December before we see any of the money, and it could be into January. So we're very, very worried about that because winter starts.
SCHMIDT: Department of Health and Human Services press secretary Emily Hilliard said in an emailed statement that once the government reopens, the agency will work swiftly to administer the funds. Pham says in the meantime, Pennsylvania families will be left with fewer resources.
PHAM: Families will be faced with a choice, potentially in the month of November, as to whether or not to heat their homes or to put food on the table or to make payments on other bills.
SCHMIDT: For Justina Ray, that may mean missing a car payment or traveling less to visit family over the holidays. She says she's already behind on her energy bills.
RAY: Like, we've got extra blankets heated up, if, like - we'll maybe have the oven open a little bit.
SCHMIDT: And she's not planning to turn her heat on anytime soon.
For NPR News, I'm Sophia Schmidt in Jenkintown, Pennsylvania. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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