(Radio Iowa) – Even though it’s summer, advocates are worried about a winter heating program for Iowans. The Trump administration’s proposed budget includes eliminating funding for the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP. Jean Logan, with the Community Action Agency of Siouxland in northwest Iowa, says LIHEAP is a very beneficial program that helps many tens of thousands of Iowans pay their utility bills.

“It helps families. It helps seniors. It helps people with disabilities,” Logan says. “I’m really concerned.” Logan says almost $1.4 million was spent to help almost 29,000 households in Woodbury County alone this past winter. Statewide, LIHEAP helped some 96,000 Iowa customers pay their winter heating bills last year.

Logan also oversees a summertime cooling program through LIHEAP that provides window air conditioners and helps people get their utilities turned back on. “I’m hoping that we’ll get an amendment that will be able to help us continue to help families,” she says, “because that’s really important when it’s so hot like this.”

Logan says her non-profit only has about $2,000 left in its coffers to help people through the summer. “LIHEAP is such an important program,” Logan says. “There will be health consequences.”

Congress created LIHEAP in 1981 as a way to counter concerns about skyrocketing energy prices during the 1970s.