The government shutdown is delaying funding for a federal heating assistance program that helps thousands of low-income Alaska families to offset their heating costs and weatherize homes for winter, state health officials said Thursday.

The Alaska Department of Health said in a statement that the government shutdown has delayed the release of money for the federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program for the year of 2026. The program subsidizes energy bills for about 50,000 Alaskans, many of whom live in rural and tribal communities.

“It definitely benefits a lot of rural and tribal communities,” said Jennifer Hyde, a federal infrastructure coordinator at the Alaska Center, a nonprofit that advocates for the continuation of the program. “Disproportionately, those communities are oft

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