IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1364 
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, acceptable, sufficient, afford-
able, climate resilient, and reliable for every person. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
SEPTEMBER 19, 2022 
Ms. BUSH (for herself, Ms. TLAIB, Mr. BOWMAN, Mr. GARCI´A of Illinois, Ms. 
OCASIO-CORTEZ, Mrs. CAROLYN
B. MALONEY
of New York, Ms. 
PRESSLEY, Ms. LEE of California, Ms. SCHAKOWSKY, Mr. CARSON, and 
Ms. OMAR) submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the 
Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committees 
on Transportation and Infrastructure, and Natural Resources, for a pe-
riod to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for con-
sideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the com-
mittee concerned 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing access to water, sanitation, electricity, heating, 
cooling, broadband communications, and public transpor-
tation as basic human rights and public services that 
must be accessible, safe, acceptable, sufficient, affordable, 
climate resilient, and reliable for every person. 
Whereas every person requires access to water, sanitation, 
electricity, heating, cooling, public transportation, and 
broadband to survive and live a life with dignity; 
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Whereas decades-old infrastructure systems, including cen-
tralized utilities as well as disconnected wells, septic sys-
tems, unpiped systems, the electric grid, power lines, 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, the COVID–19 pandemic, 
worsening racial injustices, deteriorating investments in 
existing systems, and deepening economic inequities 
which endanger the public’s health and safety; 
Whereas these crises are exacerbated by privatization of pub-
lic 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 ac-
cepting public funding from the Federal relief, recovery, 
and infrastructure packages; 
Whereas millions of households have accrued billions of dol-
lars of utility debt before and during the COVID–19 pan-
demic, as utility bills continue to grow faster than house-
hold incomes, including broadband prices that have risen 
far faster than the rate of inflation for years, and utility 
services have become profoundly unaffordable for millions 
of people, causing 33 percent of low-income households 
served by the Weatherization Assistance Program to skip 
prescription medicines and food purchases to pay utility 
bills and 18 percent of low-income households to use high 
interest, short-term loans to pay their energy bills; 
Whereas utilities are engaging in punitive residential cus-
tomer payment collection practices including mass-scale 
service shutoffs even during the pandemic, shutting off 
water service to an estimated 15,000,000 people in a typ-
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ical year and electricity service to households well over 
3,600,000 times between 2020 and 2021; 
Whereas many utilities send overdue utility bills, particularly 
water bills, to tax authorities to impose liens that can be 
sold at tax sales, contributing to property foreclosures 
that can evict people from their homes and lead to bank-
ruptcy; 
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 house-
holds’ ability to access affordable credit; 
Whereas utility shutoffs and unaffordable bills have led to in-
creasing numbers of vulnerable people dying from uncon-
trollable household temperatures and inaccessible water 
and sanitation after being denied access to utility services 
that pose substantial threats to general public and com-
munity health, as exemplified in a paper from Duke Uni-
versity 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 hous-
ing and utility insecurity and exposure to eviction, home-
lessness, and resulting incarceration because of the crim-
inalization of being houseless; 
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Whereas disconnection from water, sanitation, electricity, 
heating, cooling, and broadband services can expose fami-
lies to State-enforced separation due to conditioning pa-
rental 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 contrib-
utor to global greenhouse gas pollution, responsible for 
approximately 25 percent of cumulative carbon dioxide 
emissions since 1870, which is accelerating climate disas-
ters 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 that place 
greater demand and cause significant harm to the aging 
infrastructure in places where Black, brown, and Indige-
nous people live, particularly among low-income commu-
nities and other groups who are economically vulnerable; 
Whereas the need for cooling and air filtration will increase 
due to the climate emergency, accelerating the need to 
assist vulnerable people during heat waves, drought, ex-
treme wildfire, and other heat- and air quality-related 
emergencies; 
Whereas environmental justice-seeking communities experi-
ence disparate and cumulative health impacts from cli-
mate change, air pollution, soil contamination, unsafe 
drinking water sources (including lead service lines or 
contaminated wells), and inadequate sanitation systems; 
Whereas fossil fuel energy primarily delivered by centralized 
utilities is driving the climate crisis and polluting; 
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