Sponsor
Mark Edward Kelly
Senator · D-AZ
Senator · D-AZ
The bill seeks to rapidly reduce household cost pressures through enhanced analyses, enforcement, supply interventions, and transparent recommendations, but it does so by expanding federal spending, administrative requirements, and short-term emergency powers that could raise taxpayer costs, risk rushed or politicized decisions, and constrain longer-term investments.
Low- and middle-income households will get more frequent, targeted analysis and actionable recommendations aimed at lowering costs for essentials (food, housing, utilities, health care, transportation, wages), giving policymakers clearer, timely options to reduce household budgets pressure.
Consumers are better protected from price spikes through stronger federal enforcement of price-gouging and anticompetitive conduct plus a centralized portal to report suspected illegal pricing, which should deter unfair business practices and speed investigations.
Federal agencies will coordinate more rapidly and transparently (weekly coordination, quarterly "State of Household Budgets" reports, public regulatory impact statements, and Commission transparency), improving situational awareness and public accountability during an emergency.
The bill expands programs, subsidies, loan guarantees, and new offices, increasing federal spending (including use of DPA funds) that could raise the deficit or crowd out other priorities paid for by taxpayers.
Extensive new reporting, analytic requirements, and standing coordination (weekly, quarterly, 90‑day, and Commission deadlines) will add administrative burdens and staff time, diverting agency resources, slowing other priorities, and possibly delaying rules or responses.
The 180‑day sunset requirement could cause emergency authorities to lapse abruptly or force rushed Congressional decisions, disrupting programs that residents or businesses rely on.
Based on analysis of 8 sections of legislative text.
Declares a 180-day cost-of-living emergency, creates a CEA emergency office and DOJ–FTC task force, mandates household-impact regulatory review, authorizes DPA Title III actions to boost supply, and forms a Congressional Commission.
Declares a 180-day national emergency to respond to high household costs and creates a temporary federal response to lower prices for basic necessities. It requires the Council of Economic Advisers to stand up a Cost-of-living Emergency Office with named Special Advisors, directs OMB to require household-cost impact statements for major rules, establishes a joint DOJ–FTC antitrust/price‑gouging task force, authorizes use of the Defense Production Act Fund to boost domestic supply of essential goods, and creates a bipartisan Congressional Cost‑of‑Living Commission to produce policy recommendations during the emergency.
Official title: Declare an emergency regarding the cost of living in the United States and direct actions to be taken to address the cost-of-living emergency, and for other purposes.
Introduced March 26, 2026 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress March 26, 2026