Siouxland agency not expecting LIHEAP to be affected by federal cuts
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (KCAU) — An energy assistance program will not be impacted by federal cuts, according to the local organization that carries it out.
Staffing cuts at the Department of Health and Human Services included federal workers overseeing the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP). The Community Action Agency of Siouxland's executive director Jean Logan spoke with representatives about the potential impacts the federal staff layoff could have.
Sioux City receives $500K grant for wastewater treatment improvements
Logan told KCAU 9 that the program at the local level will not see an impact. That's because 90 percent of the funds have already been sent to the states. However, there are some questions regarding the remaining funds.
'It's anticipated that the last 10 percent is going to be delayed, but still received by the states,' Logan said. 'I also heard today that if that funding is held up, we'll still be able to take applications and hopefully get applications paid in a timely manner.'
About 2,700 Siouxland families have received assistance through the program this past winter. Logan says there is still time to apply for LIHEAP, as the program runs through April 30. Siouxlanders can apply by appointment or on the agency's website — click here for more information.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Catholic employers can't be forced to provide gender-affirming care, federal judge in ND rules
The Quentin Burdick federal courthouse in Fargo, North Dakota. (Jeff Beach/North Dakota Monitor) A North Dakota federal judge has ruled that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission cannot force a group of Catholic employers to administer or pay for gender-affirming medical care. The case concerns two rules published by the federal agencies. The Department of Health and Human Services rule bars businesses that provide federally funded health programs from withholding medical care to someone just because they are transgender. Doing so would violate an anti-discrimination provision of the Affordable Care Act and Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972, the rule states. The lawsuit also challenged a similar rule published by the EEOC implementing Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which outlaws workplace discrimination for employers with more than 15 employees. The rule holds that such employers cannot refuse to cover medical services to a transgender staff member that they would otherwise cover for other employees. Federal judge in North Dakota rules in favor of Catholic employers on abortion protections The Catholic Benefits Association — which represents Catholic employers — filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in North Dakota alleging the rules will force its members to violate their religious beliefs. The association said the rules could require Catholic hospitals to perform gender-affirming surgeries or a Catholic ministry to cover an employee's hormone replacement therapy, for example. The Catholic church teaches that providing gender-affirming care to transgender people is immoral, the association states in its complaint. The Department of Health and Human Services and EEOC defended the rules as necessary to protect Americans from gender-based discrimination, and further argued that the policies won't harm religious exercise because employers can ask for religious exemptions from the rules on a case-by-case basis. U.S. District Court Judge Peter Welte found these options insufficient because they do not guarantee exemptions to religious organizations, leaving them 'unable to predict their legal exposure.' Welte in an order last week sided largely with the Catholic Benefits Association. Welte found that the rules violate broad protections for religious exercise established in the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act of 1993. That act states that the government can only limit religious exercise in service of a 'compelling government interest,' and must make every effort to be as minimally restrictive as possible. Welte said that the Department of Health and Human Services and EEOC rules don't meet these standards. The policies force Catholic organizations to decide between going against their beliefs and being subject to discrimination investigations and lawsuits, he wrote in the order. He ruled that the Department of Health and Human Services cannot interpret the Affordable Care Act in a way that requires the Catholic Benefits Association to administer or provide insurance coverage for gender-affirming procedures. He similarly found that the EEOC cannot interpret Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to require the association to provide insurance coverage for gender-transition procedures. The lawsuit also challenged other protections in the rules related to abortion and fertility treatments, though Welte dismissed those claims. The Catholic Benefits Association filed the lawsuit as a successor to a previous case it joined with other Catholic groups against the Department of Health and Human Services and the EEOC. Welte also sided with the plaintiffs in that case, though an appellate court in 2022 found the Catholic Benefits Association didn't have standing to be part of the suit. In another case involving the Catholic Benefits Association, North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Daniel Traynor in April ruled that the association is exempt from provisions in two separate EEOC policies — one meant to shield workers from LGBTQ-based workplace harassment, and another that sought to protect workers' access to abortion and fertility treatments. Other federal judges have since issued rulings vacating parts of both rules nationwide. A federal judge in Texas in May vacated portions of the workplace harassment rule that pertain to sexual harassment and gender identity. Later that month, a federal judge in Louisiana struck down the abortion access protections. The decisions come as President Donald Trump's administration is rolling back services and legal protections, including by restricting access to gender-affirming care for minors and implementing a blanket ban on transgender people serving in the military. Trump signed an executive order in January establishing a two-gender policy for the federal government. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
White House proposes axing 988 suicide hotline services for LGBTQ youth
The Department of Health and Human Services' proposed budget for 2026 eliminates specialized suicide hotline services for LGBTQ youth and young adults. The budget proposal, which the department published Friday, designates $520 million for 988, the suicide prevention line, and behavioral health crisis services, which is the same amount the Biden administration provided for 988. However, the 2026 budget proposal would end government funding for LGBTQ-specific counseling to 988 callers upon request. When asked for comment, a spokesperson for HHS directed NBC News to the White House's Office of Management and Budget. Rachel Cauley, a spokesperson for OMB, noted that the proposed budget would provide the same amount for 988 services as was provided in previous years. 'It does not, however, grant taxpayer money to a chat service where children are encouraged to embrace radical gender ideology by 'counselors' without consent or knowledge of their parents,' Cauley said. 'Radical gender ideology' is a political term adopted by conservatives and President Donald Trump's administration to describe the existence of transgender people and the trans rights movement, which it considers harmful to children. The National Suicide Prevention Lifeline has existed since 2005, and, in 2020, during his first term, Trump signed legislation designating 988 as the new lifeline number by 2022. That legislation required 988 to provide LGBTQ youth and young adults who call the line with access to 'specially trained staff and partner organizations,' noting that queer and trans youth 'are more than 4 times more likely to contemplate suicide than their peers, with 1 in 5 LGBTQ youth and more than 1 in 3 transgender youth reporting attempting suicide.' A senior administration official said the money for services for LGBTQ young people has not been cut, but rather reallocated to the general 988 services so that it doesn't go to 'radical grooming contractors,' using another term adopted by conservatives decades ago to falsely equate being LGBTQ or promoting LGBTQ inclusivity with sexually abusing children. The contractors who provide LGBTQ-specific services through 988 are mental health organizations based across the U.S. Most of them provide mental health care to the general population in addition to LGBTQ people. The official said only the contract with 'radical gender' counselors is being terminated, and not the resources. However, under the proposed budget, when LGBTQ youth and young adults under age 25 call 988, there will not be an option for them to be connected to a counselor who is trained to provide support to LGBTQ youth. Currently, LGBTQ young people can also text 'PRIDE' to 988 to reach a counselor with such training. The official did not respond to additional questions regarding what organization(s) 'radical grooming contractors' was referring to specifically. The Trevor Project, a national suicide prevention and crisis intervention organization for LGBTQ youths, is among the contractors that make up a subnetwork of specialists who provide 988 services to LGBTQ young people. 'Attempts to discredit these life-saving services will not change the reality of what this administration is proposing: the elimination of a national suicide prevention program, run by seven leading crisis contact centers, that has supported over 1.3 million LGBTQ+ youth across the U.S. with best-practice crisis care,' Jaymes Black, the project's CEO, said in a statement to NBC News, referring to the number of contacts who have reached out to 988 for LGBTQ-specific support since the program's start in 2022. 'Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle — and our President — came together during the first Trump administration to create this specialized resource,' Black added. 'It's a shared acknowledgement that every young life is worth saving, and that risk, not identity, drives evidence-based and effective crisis intervention. We strongly urge the administration and Congress to rethink this proposal, and do what is best for ending the public health crisis of suicide among our nation's youth." The other six contractors who provide 988 services to LGBTQ young people are Centerstone, Volunteers of America Western Washington State, Solari Crisis & Human Services, CommUnity Crisis Services, HopeLink Behavioral Health and La Frontera EMPACT. Centerstone did not answer NBC News' question about the proposed elimination to 988's LGBTQ-specific service, and the other organizations did not immediately respond to requests for comment. In April, The Washington Post reported a leaked HHS budget draft that proposed cutting funding for 988 services for LGBTQ youth. At the time, the White House wouldn't confirm the veracity of that draft or the information about the funding. The budget proposal is the latest effort from the Trump administration to rollback services and protections for LGBTQ people, specifically transgender people. In the first few weeks of his second administration, Trump issued several executive orders targeting trans people, including declaring that there are only two unchangeable sexes; prohibiting trans people from enlisting and serving in the military; barring trans girls and women from competing on female sports teams in federally-funded K-12 schools and colleges; and barring federal funding from going to hospitals that provide transition-related care to minors. Federal officials have also scrubbed agency websites of any mention of transgender or intersex people, including from the website for the Stonewall National Monument commemorating the site of the 1969 Stonewall Uprising, in which historians say trans people were crucial and became a turning point in the modern gay rights movement. At the start of June, which is LGBTQ Pride month, the Navy confirmed to NBC News that it would rename the USNS Harvey Milk, a fleet replenishment oiler named for the LGBTQ rights activist, Navy veteran and first openly gay man elected to public office in California. This article was originally published on
Yahoo
7 hours ago
- Yahoo
Florence County health worker charged with Medicaid fraud
FLORENCE COUNTY, S.C. (WBTW) — A Florence County health worker has been charged with Medicaid fraud, the South Carolina Attorney General's Office said Tuesday. Jacqueline Burgess, 59, of Scranton, was charged with medical assistance provider fraud. She was booked into the Alvin S. Glenn Detention Center on Tuesday. An investigation revealed that between Dec. 4, 2023, and June 21, 2024, Burgess allegedly knowingly and wilfully caused false claims for payments to the state Department of Health and Human Services, the agency that administers South Carolina's Medicaid program. Burgess, a care attendant with Tender Care Home Health Care, allegedly submitted false timesheets indicating she had rendered care services for a Medicaid beneficiary when she had not, according to the attorney general's office. Burgess may face up to three years in prison and a fine of up to $1,000. * * * Caleb is a digital producer at News13. Caleb joined the team in January 2023 after graduating from Liberty University. He is from Northern Virginia. Follow Caleb on X, formerly Twitter, and read more of his work here. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
