ASSEMBLY AGING AND HUMAN SERVICES COMMITTEE

STATEMENT TO

ASSEMBLY, No. 5563

STATE OF NEW JERSEY

DATED:  MAY 8, 2025

      The Assembly Aging and Human Services Committee reports favorably Assembly Bill No. 5563.

      This bill directs the Department of Community Affairs (department) and the Board of Public Utilities (board) each to establish a “Summer Termination Program” (program).  The bill prohibits a local authority, municipal utility, rural electric cooperative, or public utility from discontinuing electric, sewer, or water service to certain residential customers if the three-day wet bulb globe temperature forecast within a local authority’s, municipal utility’s, rural electric cooperative’s, or public utility’s jurisdiction is expected to equal or exceed 85 degrees Fahrenheit for 24 hours or more out of the 72-hour period.  Under the bill, a residential customer is eligible for the program if the residential customer:  (1) receives assistance under certain programs specified in the eligibility criteria for the “Winter Termination Program”; or (2) is unable to pay the residential customer’s local authority, municipal utility, rural electric cooperative, or public utility bill due to certain circumstances, including, but not limited to, unemployment, illness, medically-related expenses, the recent death of an immediate family member, and any other circumstances, as determined by the department or the board, as applicable, that might cause financial hardship.

      Finally, the bill requires the department and the board each to establish a process for residential customers to self-certify their inability to pay a local authority, municipal utility, rural electric cooperative, or public utility bill.