Title: A bill to express the sense of Congress regarding the need for a nationwide moratorium on electric and natural gas utility disconnections during the nationwide emergency relating to the spread of the novel coronavirus.
Policy area: Energy

Summary:
This bill calls for states and electric or natural gas utilities to place a moratorium on utility disconnections during the emergency relating to the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) outbreak. In addition, the bill calls for states and utilities to ensure that

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4029 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                S. 4029

 To express the sense of Congress regarding the need for a nationwide 
 moratorium on electric and natural gas utility disconnections during 
     the nationwide emergency relating to the spread of the novel 
                              coronavirus.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 22, 2020

 Mr. Markey (for himself, Ms. Warren, Mr. Blumenthal, Ms. Harris, Mr. 
Wyden, Mrs. Gillibrand, Mr. Merkley, and Mr. Van Hollen) introduced the 
 following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on 
                      Energy and Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To express the sense of Congress regarding the need for a nationwide 
 moratorium on electric and natural gas utility disconnections during 
     the nationwide emergency relating to the spread of the novel 
                              coronavirus.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE NEED FOR A NATIONWIDE 
              MORATORIUM ON ELECTRIC AND NATURAL GAS UTILITY 
              DISCONNECTIONS DURING THE NATIONWIDE EMERGENCY RELATING 
              TO THE SPREAD OF THE NOVEL CORONAVIRUS.

    It is the sense of Congress that, for the duration of the emergency 
involving Federal primary responsibility determined to exist by the 
President under section 501(b) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster 
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5191(b)) with respect to 
the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19), each relevant State regulatory 
authority and each electric or natural gas utility that sells electric 
energy or natural gas to a consumer should ensure that--
            (1) no electric or natural gas service to a consumer is 
        terminated;
            (2) reasonable efforts are made to safely reconnect 
        electric and natural gas consumers that have lost service;
            (3) no electric or natural gas consumer is charged for 
        reconnection services;
            (4) late fees and other penalties are waived for electric 
        and natural gas consumers; and
            (5) there are no increases in cost-of-service to electric 
        and natural gas consumers.
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