Frederica Freyberg:
As the weather turns colder, we all push up the thermostat to heat our homes. Families who need financial help to pay their utility bills may have to wait because of the government shutdown, despite it being over. Last year, nearly 190,000 Wisconsin households received nearly $137 million in assistance, an average of about $315 per household. The Wisconsin Energy Assistance Program receives both state and federal funding. Now, the state funding is secure, but the federal funds aren’t expected to be released until December or January. Here with more information on this, we are joined by Assistant Deputy Secretary Diana Maas from the Wisconsin Department of Administration. And thanks very much for being here.

Diana Maas:
Yeah, thanks for having me.

Frederica Freyberg:
So did the CR bill that ended the shutdown fully fund the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program?

Diana Maas:
Not yet. It reopened the government, which is great. And now, as we understand it, our LIHEAP folks in the federal government can get to work in trying to calculate what the allocations will be to each state. And that’s what we expect is still going to take some time.

Frederica Freyberg:
And so how much delayed is this from a usual year when states would get that allocation?

Diana Maas:
Yeah. At this point, you know, I would say we’re predicting a month or more delayed from a typical year. It’s typical that we don’t yet have our dollars at the beginning of the heating season, but we would normally know our award allocation and we don’t yet know that. And so part of that is because of the federal government shutdown. But now that the government’s open again, we expect they’re going to take a few weeks to work that out.

Frederica Freyberg:
And how will it affect the people who are trying to apply for that kind of assistance? Will that also be delayed to them?

Diana Maas:
So they absolutely should apply now. They should continue applying. Applications are open and our providers are taking those applications and available to assist in that way. So they can find out if they’re eligible or ineligible. And that helps us so that once we receive the dollars, we’re able to administer those benefits. But the good news is folks should continue to apply throughout the season because if they’re ineligible today, but a circumstance changes, we will continue to recalculate that eligibility throughout the season.

Frederica Freyberg:
And the eligibility is based on income I trust.

Diana Maas:
That’s right.

Frederica Freyberg:
So does Governor Evers’ emergency order this week relating to housing or an energy crisis relate to this?

Diana Maas:
You know, it’s supplemental support to help those folks in need. We know that these assistance programs support and serve the same communities that LIHEAP continues to serve in the state.

Frederica Freyberg:
So if President Trump, I understand that President Trump laid off the entire staff that administers this LIHEAP, this federal assistance program for energy, how do you suspect that will affect payments to states?

Diana Maas:
Yeah, it may continue to factor into the delay. It’s, you know, we can assume with less folks dedicated to working in this space, it might take longer to do the work. So that’s again, I think another factor that we anticipate will contribute to the delay.

Frederica Freyberg:
So what happens – we’re back to shutdown talk now – but what happens when the federal funding continuing resolution expires on January 30? Should the energy assistance funds already have been made available?

Diana Maas:
We anticipate so, yeah. If they were not, you know, we’re having a different conversation. The good news is state law in Wisconsin prohibits disconnection between November 1 and April 15, so we know that folks will be safe in terms of their heat. You know, utility companies won’t be turning off their heat, but we will absolutely have to figure out the funding if we got to a future date where those dollars weren’t yet administered.

Frederica Freyberg:
How do people apply?

Diana Maas:
Yeah, they need to go to energybenefit.wi.gov and that will give them all the information about where to find their local provider. And they have options to apply by phone, in person, mail or right online.

Frederica Freyberg:
So should people expect the same amount of assistance this year as they got last year?

Diana Maas:
We don’t yet know because we don’t yet have our dollar amount for program year 26. We anticipate it will be very similar to last year, but we don’t know until we get the award.

Frederica Freyberg:
And the way it works is that if you apply for assistance, you are eligible and you are given assistance, you — that goes directly to your utility or to yourself?

Diana Maas:
It goes directly to the utility provider on their behalf. And then we also — the same program supports if their furnace goes out and it’s a crisis situation, we would then support repair or replacement of that furnace. But typically the most part of these benefits go directly to the utility company.

Frederica Freyberg:
Great. Well, we hope to keep people warm. Diana Maas, Wisconsin Department of Administration, thanks very much.

Diana Maas:
Thank you.