Congress protects heating aid for poor families during shutdown
H.R. 5687 — Keep the Heat On Act of 2025 · Filed by Chris Pappas (D-NH) · 14 cosponsors · Introduced Oct 3, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill ensures that the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) continues to pay heating and cooling assistance to eligible low-income households during a federal government shutdown in fiscal year 2026. It appropriates whatever funds are needed from the general Treasury to maintain payment levels at the same rate as fiscal year 2025, preventing a lapse in benefits when discretionary appropriations expire.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a straightforward emergency appropriation mechanism designed to maintain a specific social safety-net program (LIHEAP) during a shutdown. It uses unobligated Treasury funds to bridge a gap in discretionary appropriations, a standard legislative tool for protecting essential services.
What the text implies
- The bill does not require reauthorization of LIHEAP itself—it assumes the program's underlying authority remains valid and only addresses the funding gap. If LIHEAP's statutory authority expires or is repealed, this appropriation may not be sufficient to sustain payments.
- By pegging fiscal year 2026 payments to fiscal year 2025 rates, the bill freezes assistance levels and does not account for inflation, population growth, or increased energy costs, potentially reducing real purchasing power for recipients.
- The phrase 'such sums as may be necessary' creates an open-ended appropriation, but only for the duration of the shutdown lapse—once normal appropriations resume, this authority expires, creating a cliff-edge risk if the shutdown extends beyond fiscal year 2026.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Low-income households retain critical heating and cooling assistance during a shutdown, preventing a gap in essential utility support. The bill protects vulnerable populations from losing energy aid during a period when government operations are disrupted.
Who stands to gain
- Low-income households receiving LIHEAP benefits
Named in the bill
LIHEAP (Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program), Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Act of 1981, U.S. Treasury, House Committee on Appropriations, Fiscal Year 2025, Fiscal Year 2026
Where it stands
14 cosponsors: 12 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Oct 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Oct 3, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Appropriations · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Appropriations”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 2 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $70,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 39 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 0% of bills with at least one filing.
Chris Pappas, the sponsor, reported $1,125,432 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Appalachian Voices — $70,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (547 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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