1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Heating and Cooling Relief Act . 2. Findings Congress finds that: (1) Energy remains unaffordable for low-income households. Nationally, low-income households spend a larger portion of their income on home energy costs than other households. The average low-income household’s energy burden is 3 times that of other households. The report for the Household Pulse Survey of the Bureau of the Census, issued on December 22, 2021, noted that, for families with incomes of less than $35,000 a year, about 51 percent said that they reduced or went without basic household necessities, such as medicine or food, in order to pay an energy bill, for at least one month in the last year. (2) The Low-Income Housing Energy Assistance Program was authorized by Congress to reduce home energy burdens with heating and cooling assistance. In 2019, only 16 percent of income-eligible households received a subsidy under the program. (3) Climate change is fueling increasingly intense winter storms and extreme temperatures. (4) Heat waves are increasingly common as climate change accelerates, and now occur more often in major cities across the United States. The average heat wave season across 50 cities is approximately 47 days longer now than it was in the 1960s. As a result, the Federal Government should provide further cooling assistance for communities in need. (5) The loss of home energy service due to high energy burdens is one of the primary reasons for homelessness, especially for families with children. In some housing contexts, loss of home energy service is a grounds for eviction. (6) The Federal Government should expand and update the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program, as part of a robust Federal social safety net, to— (A) protect families against unaffordable home energy bills and home energy shutoffs, by providing sufficient funding and imposing regulations where necessary