WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it is making $4.5 billion available through a low-income home energy assistance program to help with heating costs heading into what is expected to be a brutal winter.

Spending for the program is significantly higher than the typical annual funding of about $3.5 billion, but far below the $8 billion the administration and congressional Democrats delivered last winter as part of President Joe Biden's coronavirus relief package.

The money spent last year was by far the largest appropriation in a single year since the Low Income Home Energ...