IV 

118TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. RES. 1478 

Recognizing access to water, sanitation, electricity, heating, cooling, broadband 

communications, and public transportation as basic human rights and 

public services that must be accessible, safe, justly sourced and sustainable, acceptable, sufficient, affordable, climate resilient, and reliable for 

every person. 

IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

SEPTEMBER 19, 2024 

Ms. TLAIB (for herself, Ms. OCASIO-CORTEZ, Ms. OMAR, Mr. CARSON, Ms. 

LEE of California, Ms. LEE of Pennsylvania, Mrs. RAMIREZ, Mr. 

HUFFMAN, Ms. PRESSLEY, Mrs. WATSON COLEMAN, Mr. JACKSON of Illinois, Ms. BUSH, and Mr. BOWMAN) submitted the following resolution; 

which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in 

addition to the Committees on Natural Resources, and Transportation 

and Infrastructure, for a period to be subsequently determined by the 

Speaker, in each case for consideration of such provisions as fall within 

the jurisdiction of the committee concerned 

RESOLUTION 

Recognizing access to water, sanitation, electricity, heating, 

cooling, broadband communications, and public transportation as basic human rights and public services that 

must be accessible, safe, justly sourced and sustainable, 

acceptable, sufficient, affordable, climate resilient, and 

reliable for every person. 

Whereas every person requires access to water, sanitation, 

electricity, heating, cooling, broadband communications, 


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•HRES 1478 IH 

and public transportation to survive and live a life with 

dignity; 

Whereas decades-old infrastructure systems, including centralized utilities, disconnected wells, septic systems, 

unpiped systems, the electric grid, and related power infrastructure, have reached their breaking points in safety 

and reliability in the midst of compounding crises of the 

climate emergency and fossil fuel-driven climate disasters, 

racial injustices, disinvestment in existing systems, and 

economic inequities that endanger the public’s health and 

safety; 

Whereas these crises are exacerbated by privatization of public goods and utilities by for-profit corporations that 

prioritize earnings and shareholders over the welfare of 

people, the planet, and public health, all while readily accepting public funding from Federal infrastructure programs; 

Whereas millions of households collectively accrued more than 

$20,000,000,000 of energy utility debt by 2023, utility 

bills are growing faster than household incomes, with 

water prices increasing 56 percent from 2012 to 2023 

and becoming unaffordable for one in six households nationwide, and broadband prices typically rising faster 

than the rate of inflation, and utilities have become profoundly unaffordable for millions of people, causing over 

34 percent of all households to cut back on basic needs 

to pay energy bills; 

Whereas utilities are engaging in punitive residential customer payment collection practices including mass-scale 

service shutoffs, shutting off water service to an estimated 15,000,000 people in a typical year and electricity 


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service to households well over 5,700,000 times between 

2020 and 2022; 

Whereas many utilities send overdue water bills and associated late fees to tax authorities to impose liens, which 

can lead to tax sales of properties, contributing to property foreclosures that can evict people from their homes 

and lead to bankruptcy; 

Whereas investor-owned utilities, fossil-fuel energy companies, 

and their industry associations fund and coordinate the 

obstruction of renewable energy policies and programs, 

including rooftop and community solar requirements and 

incentives; 

Whereas utilities often rely on predatory collection agencies 

to pursue payment on unaffordable bills and debts that 

damage credit scores and cause long-term harm to households’ ability to access affordable credit; 

Whereas utility shutoffs and unaffordable bills have led to increasing numbers of vulnerable people dying from uncontrollable household temperatures and inaccessible water 

and sanitation after being denied access to utility services, thus posing substantial threats to general public and 

community health, as exemplified in a paper from Duke 

University researchers that found a nationwide utility 

shutoff moratorium could have prevented 15 percent of 

COVID–19 deaths in 2020, with similar findings in a 

published study from Cornell University; 

Whereas disconnection from water, sanitation, electricity, 

heating, cooling, and broadband services increases housing and utility insecurity and exposure to eviction, homelessness, and resulting incarceration because of the criminalization of being unhoused; 


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Whereas disconnection from water, sanitation, electricity, 

heating, and cooling can expose families to State-enforced 

separation due to conditioning parental or guardian’s 

ability to care for minor children or incapacitated adults 

on ensuring access to these essential services while, contradictorily, still allowing these services to be disconnected from people living in poverty; 

Whereas the United States is the largest historical contributor to global greenhouse gas pollution, responsible for 

approximately 25 percent of cumulative carbon dioxide 

emissions since 1870, which is accelerating climate disasters and destabilizing ecosystems; 

Whereas the climate emergency is causing widespread harm 

and acts as a multiplier of harmful exposures, and it has 

already begun to generate more intense storms, sea level 

rise and extreme weather events that place greater demand on and cause significant harm to the aging infrastructure, including overloading outdated stormwater and 

wastewater systems and threatening public health 

through flooding, sewage backups into homes, and sewage 

spills into public spaces, which disproportionately impact 

places where Black, Brown, and Indigenous people live, 

particularly among low-income communities and other 

groups who are economically vulnerable; 

Whereas aging drinking water and wastewater systems need 

at least $1,279,000,000,000 in improvements over the 

next 20 years to comply with existing Federal water quality regulations, according to the latest needs assessments 

from the Environmental Protection Agency; 

Whereas 2023 was the hottest year on record and the need 

for cooling, air filtration, and public water fountains and 

refill stations will continue to increase as a result of the 


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climate emergency, accelerating the need to assist vulnerable people during heat waves, drought, extreme wildfire, 

and other heat- and air-quality-related emergencies; 

Whereas environmental justice communities experience disparate and cumulative health impacts from climate 

change, air pollution, soil contamination, unsafe drinking 

water sources (including lead service lines and contaminated water supplies), and inadequate sanitation systems; 

Whereas fossil-fuel energy primarily delivered by centralized 

utilities is driving the climate crisis and pollution; 

Whereas the climate emergency poses a substantial threat to 

critical utility infrastructure and broadband communications networks vital to connectivity during times of emergency and rebuilding; 

Whereas increased electricity rates and dirty electricity 

sources have disproportionately impacted communities of 

color; 

Whereas the United States has joined a global pledge to transition away from fossil fuels and triple renewable energy 

and double energy efficiency by 2030; and 

Whereas clean, renewable energy, distributed power, energy 

efficiency, and battery storage present nonpolluting, affordable, climate-resilient energy and opportunities for 

energy democracy: Now, therefore, be it 

1 Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 

2 (1) recognizes access to water, sanitation, elec3 tricity, heating, cooling, broadband communications, 

4 and public transportation as basic human rights and 

5 public services that must be accessible, safe, justly 


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1 sourced and sustainable, acceptable, sufficient, af2 fordable, climate resilient, and reliable for every per3 son; 

4 (2) affirms that access to utility services should 

5 be guaranteed for all people and should not be de6 nied to any person based on ability to pay, housing 

7 status, immigration status, race, ethnicity, religion, 

8 age, gender, sexual orientation or identity, 

9 (dis)ability, employment status, credit history, or in10 carceration status or history, and affirms that all 

11 agencies must enforce antidiscrimination language in 

12 existing laws and ensure language access through 

13 translation and interpretation to provide adequate 

14 communication with people in the language they 

15 speak at home; 

16 (3) affirms that utilities should be held under 

17 public control, with equitable and transparent asset18 management planning systems with policy-setting 

19 public involvement and intentional community en20 gagement, based on the public interest and seeking 

21 to repair legacies of harm and pollution in environ22 mental justice communities; 

23 (4) calls for a full ban on water privatization 

24 and supports ending privatization contracts and 

25 franchises and municipalizing privatized systems; 


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1 (5) commits to the elimination of Federal fund2 ing and subsidies for private water corporations; 

3 (6) commits to the development and expansion 

4 of accountable Federal public power providers and 

5 Federal support for municipalities, cooperatives, and 

6 communities to produce, procure, and deliver clean, 

7 renewable energy, storage, and energy efficiency, 

8 and meaningful public accountability over any re9 maining private utilities to deliver the same package 

10 of climate-resilient energy; 

11 (7) calls for public municipalities, cooperatives, 

12 and smaller broadband providers to explore public 

13 ownership options and other means to provide bet14 ter, more equitable, and affordable choices than in15 cumbent for-profit companies alone provide; 

16 (8) affirms that utility services must be afford17 able for every person based on their ability to pay; 

18 (9) calls for all public utility commissions to 

19 create processes to grant policy-setting powers to 

20 community-based organizations representing the 

21 most vulnerable populations within the utility service 

22 area, and to require racial and economic equity im23 pact assessments to determine project prioritization; 


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1 (10) commits to a full ban on all punitive col2 lection practices for unpaid household utility bills in3 cluding— 

4 (A) disconnections of water, wastewater, 

5 stormwater, electricity, heating, cooling, and 

6 broadband service; 

7 (B) the use of property or tax foreclosures 

8 or evictions; 

9 (C) the sale of any uncollected household 

10 debt to collection agencies; and 

11 (D) the filing of an adverse report with a 

12 credit-reporting agency; 

13 (11) commits to provide and prioritize direct 

14 payments to environmental justice and impacted 

15 frontline communities for water, sanitation, distrib16 uted solar, and broadband projects; 

17 (12) commits to eliminate policies that crim18 inalize a person’s inability to afford utility services, 

19 including unauthorized utility reconnections and a 

20 person’s inability to improve home septic systems 

21 and other utility infrastructure; 

22 (13) commits to provide utility access to 

23 unhoused people for a basic level of service for the 

24 public good, including water for drinking, bathing, 

25 and sanitation, shelter from inclement weather, wildVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:03 Sep 20, 2024 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\HR1478.IH HR1478

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1 fire, floods, and extreme temperatures, access to 

2 public transportation, and access to internet commu3 nication; 

4 (14) affirms that utility services should be safe 

5 for all people, providing high-quality drinking water 

6 free from lead, arsenic, perfluoroalkyl and 

7 polyfluoroalkyl substances, and other contaminants, 

8 safe heating and cooling sources that do not rely on 

9 fuel oil, propane, or dangerous methane gas, and 

10 safe situating of lines and infrastructure that pro11 tects workers and communities; 

12 (15) affirms that policies facilitating the 

13 commodification and financialization of water re14 sources, services, and systems such as private water 

15 bottling, interbasin diversions, and water futures 

16 trading should be banned; 

17 (16) recognizes that, while short-term water ac18 cess must be maintained in instances of public 

19 health risk, including through the distribution of 

20 prepackaged water, such a project is neither a long21 term or sustainable solution to infrastructure-related 

22 public health crises; 

23 (17) commits to direct Federal grants to sup24 port capital improvements and operations, including 

25 the compensation packages necessary to attract and 


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1 retain a qualified unionized workforce, forgive out2 standing municipal utility debt and household utility 

3 bill debt, and otherwise scale up the capacity of pub4 licly-controlled utility services such as drinking 

5 water, wastewater, and stormwater systems; 

6 (18) commits to requiring climate adaptation 

7 planning to reduce risk and cost burden on tax8 payers and climate-resilient utility solutions, includ9 ing— 

10 (A) enhanced clean, renewable energy and 

11 energy efficiency technologies (including rooftop 

12 and community solar, storage, microgrids, 

13 weatherization technologies, heat pumps, and 

14 other efficient cooling and heating tech15 nologies); and 

16 (B) updated indoor air-quality standards 

17 and expanded water conservation measures (in18 cluding green infrastructure and stormwater 

19 management); 

20 (19) affirms that investments in new and exist21 ing infrastructure should prioritize local, responsibly 

22 sourced, and clean, renewable energy while divesting 

23 from all global extractive and fossil-fuel processes 

24 that harm local communities, economies, and cul25 tures in the United States, in the Global South, and 


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1 across Tribal communities, which disproportionately 

2 bear the climate burdens and consequences of ex3 tractive capitalism of Western nations; 

4 (20) commits to provide direct grant invest5 ments in environmental justice and frontline commu6 nities that have been historically burdened to in7 crease the availability, affordability, safety, reli8 ability, and accessibility of electricity, broadband, 

9 water, wastewater, stormwater, sanitation, heating, 

10 and cooling needs, while supporting high-quality, 

11 family-sustaining union jobs and requiring commu12 nity benefit agreements and local hiring and job 

13 training for residents in affected communities, 

14 project labor agreements, labor peace agreements, 

15 and living wages; 

16 (21) commits to upholding Tribal treaties for 

17 self-governance and self-determination; 

18 (22) commits to creating a Federal database 

19 that requires utilities to standardize regularly issued 

20 reports for water quality, noncompliance events, dis21 ruptions, disconnections, and includes data on length 

22 of disconnections, amount of arrearages, demo23 graphics, and income levels of affected communities; 

24 and 


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1 (23) commits to establishing an interagency 

2 task force composed of relevant experts to develop 

3 and submit to Congress, and publish publicly, a 

4 plan, including timelines, for implementation of the 

5 activities committed to under paragraphs (5), (6), 

6 (10), (11), (12), (13), (17), (18), (20), (21), and 

7 (22). 

Æ 


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