Power Outage Family Assistance Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 10899 Introduced in House (IH)]

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119th CONGRESS
  2d Session
                               H. R. 10899

     To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
 Assistance Act to provide for individual and household assistance in 
     the event of a prolonged power outage, and for other purposes.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            October 22, 2026

 Ms. Stevens introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure, and in addition to the 
    Committee on Homeland Security, for a period to be subsequently 
   determined by the Speaker, in each case for consideration of such 
 provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
     To amend the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency 
 Assistance Act to provide for individual and household assistance in 
     the event of a prolonged power outage, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Power Outage Family Assistance 
Act''.

SEC. 2. PROLONGED POWER OUTAGE.

    (a) In General.--Title IV of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief 
and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5170 et seq.) is amended by 
adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 431. PROLONGED POWER OUTAGE.

    ``(a) Designation.--The President may, upon request of the Governor 
of a State or Chief Executive of an Indian tribal government, designate 
a prolonged power outage for purposes of providing assistance described 
in subsection (b) for the duration of such power outage.
    ``(b) Assistance to Individuals and Households.--The President may, 
in any area affected by a prolonged power outage designated under 
subsection (a), provide assistance to individuals and households in 
accordance with section 408, regardless of whether a major disaster is 
declared under section 401, for--
            ``(1) serious needs;
            ``(2) medical and dental costs;
            ``(3) displacement costs;
            ``(4) lodging expense reimbursements;
            ``(5) miscellaneous item costs; and
            ``(6) personal property costs.
    ``(c) Applicability.--This section shall not apply to any power 
outage that is--
            ``(1) planned, scheduled, or pre-announced, including for 
        maintenance, load management, or system upgrades; or
            ``(2) primarily attributable to negligence, failure to 
        maintain, or failure to comply with applicable reliability or 
        safety standards by an electric utility or grid operator.
    ``(d) Definitions.--In this section:
            ``(1) Prolonged power outage.--The term `prolonged power 
        outage' means a loss of electrical power caused by a covered 
        event that affects not fewer than 10 percent of consumers in a 
        political subdivision of a State for not fewer than 72 hours.
            ``(2) Covered event.--The term `covered event' means--
                    ``(A) any natural catastrophe, including 
                hurricanes, tornadoes, storms, high water, earthquakes, 
                or volcanic eruptions;
                    ``(B) a terrorism or cybersecurity event; or
                    ``(C) regardless of cause, any fire, flood, or 
                explosion.''.
    (b) Recovery of Assistance.--Section 317 of the Robert T. Stafford 
Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act (42 U.S.C. 5160) is 
amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) by inserting ``, or prolonged power outage 
                designated under section 431,'' before ``shall be 
                liable''; and
                    (B) by striking ``such disaster or emergency'' and 
                inserting ``such disaster, emergency, or power 
                outage''; and
            (2) in subsection (b) by striking ``or emergency'' and 
        inserting ``, emergency, or prolonged power outage designated 
        under section 431''.
    (c) Rules and Regulations.--The President shall prescribe such 
rules and regulations as are necessary to carry out the amendments made 
by this Act.
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