•HRES 1364 IH 
Whereas increased electricity rates and dirty electricity 
sources have disproportionately impacted communities of 
color; and 
Whereas clean, renewable energy and storage present nonpol-
luting, affordable, climate-resilient energy and opportuni-
ties for energy democracy: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives— 
(1) recognizes access to water, sanitation, elec-
tricity, 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, af-
fordable, climate resilient, and reliable for every per-
son; 
(2) affirms that access to utility services should 
be guaranteed for all people and should not be de-
nied to any person based on ability to pay, housing 
status, immigration status, race, ethnicity, religion, 
age, 
gender, 
sexual 
orientation 
or 
identity, 
(dis)ability, employment status, credit history, or in-
carceration status or history, and affirms that all 
agencies must enforce antidiscrimination language in 
existing laws and ensure language access through 
translation and interpretation to provide adequate 
communication with people in the language they 
speak at home; 
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•HRES 1364 IH 
(3) affirms that utilities should be held under 
public control, with equitable and transparent asset 
management planning systems with robust public in-
volvement and meaningful community engagement, 
based in the public interest, repairing legacies of 
harm and pollution in environmental justice commu-
nities; 
(4) calls for a full ban on water privatization, 
support for exiting privatization contracts and 
municipalizing privatized systems, and the elimi-
nation of Federal funding and subsidies for private 
water corporations; 
(5) calls for the development and expansion of 
accountable Federal public power providers, munici-
palities, cooperatives, and communities to produce, 
procure, and deliver clean, renewable energy, stor-
age, and energy efficiency, and meaningful public ac-
countability over any remaining private utilities to 
deliver the same package of climate-resilient energy; 
(6) calls for public municipalities, cooperatives, 
and smaller broadband providers to explore public 
ownership options and other means to provide bet-
ter, more equitable and affordable choices than giant 
incumbent for-profit companies alone provide; 
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•HRES 1364 IH 
(7) affirms that utility services must be afford-
able for every person based on their ability to pay; 
(8) calls for a full ban on all punitive collection 
practices for unpaid household utility bills includ-
ing— 
(A) disconnections of water, electricity, 
heating, cooling, and broadband service; 
(B) the use of property or tax foreclosures; 
(C) the sale of any uncollected household 
debt to collection agencies; and 
(D) the filing of an adverse report with a 
credit reporting agency; 
(9) commits to provide and prioritize direct 
payments to environmental justice and impacted 
frontline communities for water, sanitation, distrib-
uted solar, and broadband projects; 
(10) commits to eliminate policies that crim-
inalize a person’s inability to afford utility services, 
including unauthorized utility reconnections and a 
person’s inability to improve home septic systems 
and other utility infrastructure; 
(11) commits to provide utility access to 
unhoused people for a basic level of service for the 
public good including water for drinking, bathing, 
and sanitation, shelter from inclement weather, as 
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•HRES 1364 IH 
well as wildfire and floods, access to public transpor-
tation, and access to internet communication; 
(12) affirms that utility services should be safe 
for all people, providing high-quality drinking water 
free 
from 
lead, 
arsenic, 
perfluoroalkyl 
and 
polyfluoroalkyl substances, and other contaminants, 
safe heating and cooling sources that do not rely on 
dangerous methane gas, and safe situating of lines 
and infrastructure that protects workers and com-
munities; 
(13) affirms that policies facilitating the 
commodification of water resources, services, and 
systems such as private water bottling, diversions, 
and futures trading should be banned; 
(14) recognizes that, while short-term water ac-
cess must be maintained in instances of public 
health risk, including through the distribution of 
prepackaged water, it is neither a long-term or sus-
tainable solution to infrastructure-related public 
health crises; 
(15) calls for the scaling up of publicly con-
trolled and environmentally sustainable capabilities 
to provide utility services such as clean drinking 
water; 
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•HRES 1364 IH 
(16) recognizes the climate emergency poses a 
substantial threat to critical utility infrastructure, 
requiring climate adaptation planning to reduce risk 
and cost burden on taxpayers and climate-resilient 
utility solutions including— 
(A) enhanced clean, renewable energy and 
energy efficiency technologies (e.g., rooftop and 
community solar, storage, microgrids, weather-
ization technologies, heat pumps, and other effi-
cient cooling and heating technologies); and 
(B) updated indoor air quality standards 
and expanded water conservation measures (in-
cluding green infrastructure and stormwater 
management); 
(17) affirms that investments in new and exist-
ing infrastructure should prioritize local, responsibly 
sourced, and clean, renewable energy while divesting 
from all global extractive and fossil fuel processes 
that harm local communities, economies, and cul-
tures in the United States, in the Global South, and 
across Tribal communities, which disproportionately 
bear the climate burdens and consequences of ex-
tractive capitalism of Western nations; 
(18) commits to provide direct grant invest-
ments in environmental justice and frontline commu-
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•HRES 1364 IH 
nities that have been historically burdened to in-
crease the availability, affordability, safety, reli-
ability, and accessibility of electricity, broadband, 
water, sanitation, heating, and cooling needs, while 
supporting high-quality, family-sustaining union jobs 
and requiring local hiring and job training for resi-
dents in affected communities, project labor agree-
ments, labor peace agreements, and living wages; 
(19) commits to upholding Tribal treaties for 
self-governance and self-determination; 
(20) commits to creating a Federal database 
that requires utilities to regularly report all dis-
connections, and includes data on length of dis-
connections, amount of arrearages, demographics, 
and income levels of affected communities; and 
(21) calls for congressional hearings on the sub-
ject matter of this resolution. 
Æ 
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