The head of the state Office of Consumer Counsel, which is tasked with representing the state’s utility customers, joined more than 30 other state consumer advocates in calling on Congress to keep funding to help low-income residents with their energy bills.

In a July 31 letter, 35 state attorneys general and state consumer advocate agencies asked senators to keep funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program and Weatherization Assistance Program in the federal budget.

The Trump administration has proposed cutting funding for the home energy program, part of the Health and Human Services budget known as LIHEAP, from the 2018 federal budget scheduled to go into effect Oct. 1.

“For many low-income consumers in our state, LIHEAP and WAP are critical sources of funds to pay for heat in the winter and cooling in the summer,” state Consumer Counsel Ellin Katz said in a statement Tuesday. “We must demand that the federal government fund these programs that support our most vulnerable citizens, reduce homelessness, and provide some peace of mind to those who worry that they won’t be able to pay for the most basic of services — heat and cooling.”

Funds from the federal budget are distributed through Connecticut’s Department of Social Services to local agencies, which register eligible people for the program and distribute the funds to fuel vendors and utility companies on behalf of eligible households.

The Thames Valley Council for Community Action, which administers the funds for residents of New London County, already has started to accept applications for heating subsidies over the 2017-18 winter season, TVCCA Executive Director Deborah Monahan said Wednesday.

The program has helped 6.1 million households pay heating and cooling costs in every state and the District of Columbia, as well as on most tribal reservations and U.S. territories this fiscal year, according to the letter.

Last year TVCCA processed about 90,000 applications for energy aid and had distributed funds for 74,000 households approved for benefits as of this spring.

LIHEAP is often the subject of scrutiny and threats of being cut at the federal level, Monahan said, and already has been reduced under multiple White House administrations.

But, she added, social service organizations and Congress aren’t the only ones opposed to cutting the program — local utility companies also benefit from LIHEAP.

“One of the things that I’ve said to our Congressional delegation is, ‘yes LIHEAP keeps low income vulnerable seniors ... and disabled people warm during the winter, it keeps their electricity on. But this is also an economic program,'” Monahan said.

“We’re not paying the clients,” she said. “We’re paying local vendors of fuel oil in the community.”

Monahan said TVCCA distributed more than $5 million to 50 different local fuel vendors last year. Households with incomes up to 60 percent of the state median income are eligible.

m.shanahan@theday.com