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HHS layoffs hit Meals on Wheels and other services for seniors and disabled

Old_JoeOld_Joe
edited April 1 in Off-Topic
And, as if we needed to hear more, there's this, excerpted from NPR:
The layoffs at the Department of Health and Human Services slashed the staffs of major federal aging, disability and anti-poverty programs, leaving the future of those programs uncertain. At least 40% of staff got layoff notices and many were turned away at the front door Tuesday when they showed up for work at the Administration for Community Living, or ACL, which coordinates federal policy on aging and disability.

The agency funds programs that run senior centers and distribute 216 million meals a year to older and disabled people through the Meals on Wheels program. "The programs that ACL implements improve the lives of literally tens of millions of older adults, people with disabilities and their families and caregivers," says the agency's former director under the Biden Administration, Alison Barkoff: "There's no way to have these Reductions in Force and not impact the programs and the people who rely on them."

In addition, every staffer was laid off from the Division of Energy Assistance, according to two employees who lost their jobs on Tuesday, Andrew Germain and Vikki Pretlow. The office runs the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, which helps 5.9 million low-income households pay heat and cooling bills and pay for home repairs to boost energy efficiency. The staffers said layoffs of about 20 workers came as a surprise and they expressed concern about whether the program would continue once funding runs out at the end of September and impoverished people face rising heating bills in fall and winter.

LIHEAP provides "life-saving services," says Germain. One way the funds are used is to help low-income people pay their electric bills when they rely upon oxygen or other medical devices or need to keep the refrigerator running to store insulin or other medicines. Congress appropriated $4.1 billion to LIHEAP in fiscal year 2024. Without federal staff to run the program, it's unclear how it will continue after the current appropriation ends in September.

Comment: There's obviously no point in asking if this "administration" has any shame at all.
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