Congress moves to equalize energy aid across states, ending regional carve-out
S. 1700 — LIHEAP Parity Act · Filed by Mark Kelly (D-AZ) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced May 8, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) by removing a carve-out exception in the current funding formula and requiring the Secretary of Health and Human Services to issue new regulations specifying how state allotments should be calculated. The goal is to create a more equitable distribution of federal heating and cooling assistance funds across states, with clearer data sources and regular updates to ensure accuracy.
Why we flagged it
The bill is a technical amendment to federal energy assistance law aimed at improving the fairness and accuracy of how federal funds are distributed to states for low-income heating and cooling support. It is a straightforward policy reform with no private carve-outs or narrow beneficiaries.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify what the current exception language says or how it disadvantages particular states; the actual redistributive effect depends on the content of the struck language and the new regulation HHS will issue, which are not visible in this text.
- States that currently benefit from the exception being removed may see reduced allotments; the bill does not address transition or hold-harmless provisions.
- The regulation-writing process (Section 3) gives HHS discretion over data sources and update frequency; the bill does not mandate specific sources or timelines, leaving room for implementation variation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Low-income households in states currently disadvantaged by the existing formula exception stand to receive more equitable access to federal heating and cooling assistance. The bill mandates transparent, data-driven allocation rules and regular updates, reducing arbitrary or outdated distribution patterns.
Named in the bill
Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, 42 USC 2604(a)(2)
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- May 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- May 8, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions”
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 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. Those filings disclosed $190,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 47 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.
Mark Kelly, the sponsor, reported $48,750 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Pinnacle West Capital Corporation — $190,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jan 20, 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 (929 characters) on Aug 17, 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 Dec 2025. 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 Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress moves to equalize energy aid across states, ending regional carve-out” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s1700 Report an error
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