PRIA Logo™
119-hr-10899119th CongressWALLET

Power Outage Family Assistance Act

Sponsored By: Representative Stevens, Haley M. [D-MI-11]

Introduced

Summary

Designate prolonged power outages for Stafford Act assistance. This bill would let the President, at a State governor's or tribal leader's request, declare a prolonged power outage and trigger targeted individual and household help even if no major disaster is declared. The designation applies when at least 10% of customers in a political subdivision lose power for 72 hours or more.

Personalized for You

How does this bill affect your finances?

Personalize government policy and PRIA will tell you what this bill means for your household, plus every other piece of legislation we track. PRIA reads each provision against your financial profile to show you exactly what matters to your wallet.

Free to download

Bill Overview

Analyzed Economic Effects

2 provisions identified: 1 benefits, 1 costs, 0 mixed.

More federal aid for long outages

If enacted, the President would be able to designate a qualifying prolonged power outage after a State Governor or tribal chief asks. In a designated area, you would be able to get individual and household help under the Stafford Act for serious needs, medical and dental costs, displacement and lodging costs, household and personal property losses, and similar expenses. The help would be available even if there is no major disaster declaration, and it would apply for the duration of the designated outage. An outage would qualify only if it affected at least 10% of consumers in a political subdivision for at least 72 hours and resulted from a listed covered event like a storm, terrorism or cyberattack, fire, flood, explosion, or certain natural disasters.

Limits and repayment for outage aid

If enacted, you would not qualify for this proposed outage aid if the outage was planned, scheduled, or announced in advance, including for maintenance, load management, or system upgrades. You also would not qualify if the outage was mainly caused by a utility or grid operator's negligence, failure to maintain, or failure to meet safety or reliability standards. If you receive aid for a designated outage, the bill would bring that aid under existing Stafford Act rules for recovering assistance. The bill does not itself say every recipient must repay and it sets no repayment amounts.

Sponsors & CoSponsors

Sponsor

Stevens, Haley M. [D-MI-11]

MI • D

Cosponsors

There are no cosponsors for this bill.

Roll Call Votes

No roll call votes available for this bill.

View on Congress.gov
Back to Legislation