Millions of Americans are falling behind on their bills during this ongoing crisis. This kind of debt can snowball and lead to evictions or shutoffs of vital services like clean water, gas and electricity, and internet. |
No one in this country should have to worry about whether they can reliably access electricity, clean water, or broadband internet.
But all across America, millions of families are struggling to afford the skyrocketing prices of these essential services. Mounting debt for unpaid bills has brought families to the brink of experiencing homelessness. And people who can’t afford their utility bills are punished through shutoffs of these vital, life-sustaining services, making it impossible to meet their basic needs.
There’s a solution: My colleague and friend, Representative Rashida Tlaib introduced the Maintaining Access to Essential Services Act. The bill will stop utility shutoffs, require reconnection for anyone whose essential services have been shut off, and eliminate household debt for water, electricity, and broadband internet — and I’m proud to be a co-sponsor of this vital legislation.
Even before the pandemic, millions of people across the country were going without running water — a basic human need and a right — simply because they couldn’t afford to pay for it. And this punitive system disproportionately harms Black, brown, and low-income people.
To address this growing crisis, the Maintaining Access to Essential Services Act provides nearly $40 billion in low-interest loans to utilities — and requires them to: suspend utility shutoffs (water, power, and internet), restore disconnected service, suspend late fees and charges, stop the sale of household debt to debt collectors, and stop filing adverse reports to credit agencies.
The loans will be forgiven when the utilities forgive all outstanding household debt. That’s how we can eliminate mounting debt for millions of struggling families and begin to break the cycle of poverty.
In solidarity,
Pramila
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