A5563 Senate Statement 6/30/25

These floor amendments:

(1) define “utility emergency” under the bill as any condition constituting a potential danger to life, health, or property that requires a local authority, municipal utility, rural electric cooperative, or public utility to discontinue, interrupt, or maintain the discontinuation or interruption of electric, sewer, or water service or that results in an unscheduled discontinuance or interruption in electric, sewer, or water service;

(2) replace the program’s temperature-based protections with date-based protections, prohibiting utility shutoffs during the period of June 15 to August 31 rather than prohibiting utility shutoffs when 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;

(3) require utility services to be restored on June 15 of each year, with no reconnection fee charged, for any residential customer who is eligible for and seeks protection under the program and whose utility services were terminated for nonpayment prior to June 15;

(4) provide that local authorities, municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and public utilities may verify, prior to restoring service on June 15, that the residential customer continues to reside in or occupy the place of residence for which service was terminated for nonpayment;

(5) require local authorities, municipal utilities, rural electric cooperatives, and public utilities to discuss a deferred payment arrangement with any residential customer participating in the program who is in arrears;

(6) clarify that program eligibility, in part, is determined by whether a residential customer meets one or more of the categorical eligibility criteria for the board’s “Winter Termination Program” or the department’s “Winter Termination Program,” as applicable, rather than whether a residential customer receives assistance under programs specified in the board’s “Winter Termination Program” eligibility criteria;

(7) clarify that program eligibility, in part, is determined by a residential customer’s inability to pay their utility bill due to certain circumstances that are beyond the residential customer’s control;

(8) provide an exception to the program’s shutoff protections to allow for the discontinuation or interruption of utility service, due to a utility emergency, to residential customers who are eligible for the program; and

(9) make technical corrections.