Meals on wheels, which deliver food to the elderly confined to the house, are among the programs for the elderly and disabled now at risk now because the federal agencies have dismissed the staff who administer them.
Amy Sancetta / AP
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Amy Sancetta / AP
THE dismissal At the Ministry of Health and Social Services, to the Ministry of Health and Social Services, reduced staff members of the main federal programs for aging, disability and the fight against poverty, leaving the future of these uncertain programs.
At least 40% of the staff obtained dismissal opinions and many were refused to the front door on Tuesday when they presented themselves at work to the administration for community life, or ACL, which coordinates the federal policy on aging and disability. It is according to the former director of the agency under the Biden administration, Alison Barkoff, who says he had spoken to several members of his former staff.
The agency finances programs that manage senior centers and distribute 216 million meals a year to older and disabled people as part of the meal program on wheels.
“The programs that ACL implements improves the lives of millions of millions of elderly people, disabled people and their families and caregivers, said Barkoff, now director of a healthcare program at the George Washington University of the Milken Institute in the Milken Institute, “There is no way to have these Rifs and not have an impact on the programs and the people who count on them.”
Last week, the announcement Upcoming layoffs in HHS said ACL’s responsibilities are said to be in different HHS parts.
But 2025 projectThe Guide to the Heritage Foundation for Government Remode, suggested that LCA has work on special education services once the Ministry of Education dismantled. It is not clear where this work will be done now.
In addition, each staff member was dismissed from the energy assistance division, according to two employees who lost their job on Tuesday, Andrew Germain and Vikki Pretlow. The office manages the low -income energy aid program, or liheap, which helps 5.9 million low -income households pay for heat and cooling bills and pay for home repairs to stimulate energy efficiency.
Staff members said that the layoffs of around twenty workers were a surprise and that they were worried about whether the program would continue to finance at the end of September and that the depleted people would face increasing heating bills in the fall and winter.
LIHEAP provides “vital services”, explains Germain. A way in which funds are used is to help low -income people to pay their electricity bills when they rely on oxygen or other medical devices or must operate the refrigerator to store insulin or other drugs.
Germain directed compliance monitoring to ensure that states used the LIHEAP money correctly. He said fraud is rare. But LIHEAP was examined by the 2025 project. He noted a “gap” – fixed by the congress over ten years ago, in 2014 – which was used by around 10 states to provide minimum energy assistance in a way that then qualified depleted people for a larger indicator, or a food stamp, a payment.
The congress assigned $ 4.1 billion to Liheap during the year 2024. Germain says that without federal staff to manage the program, it is not clear how it will continue after the current credits in September.
Pretlow, who has lost his job as a program specialist at Liheap’s office, said: “You can be paid much more in a different place, you can be rented more in a different place, you can be more appreciated in a different place. But the people I work with have a big heart for the service.”