Sponsor
Marcia Carolyn Kaptur
Representative · D-OH
Representative · D-OH
Official title: To establish the Ratepayer Justice Fund and a Federal process to reimburse ratepayers and communities harmed by utility and utility executive misconduct, including corruption, and to hold accountable those responsible for such misconduct, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 15, 2026 by Marcia Carolyn Kaptur · Last progress July 15, 2026
The bill channels federal funds and new enforcement tools to return money to harmed utility customers and finance community restoration and grid upgrades, but does so with significant administrative complexity, privacy and due‑process concerns, and a real risk that costs or higher rates will be shifted back onto consumers.
Ratepayers (especially low-income households, renters, homeowners, and non‑filers) can receive direct restitution and refundable credits when utilities engaged in misconduct, with processes to identify harmed customers and prioritize residential claims.
Stronger enforcement and financial accountability (assessments, disgorgement-style remedies, civil collection tools and criminal penalties) hold utilities, executives, and lobbyists financially accountable and create deterrence against corruption or unlawful pricing.
A Ratepayer Justice Fund plus dedicated community restoration and infrastructure grants provide money for local restoration projects, grid modernization, broadband, clean energy, and environmental remediation in harmed or designated communities.
Many of the program costs and enforcement remedies could be shifted back onto utility customers (through fees, surcharges, or higher rates), meaning consumers — including low‑income households — may ultimately subsidize relief or enforcement.
Broad new enforcement powers (including civil collection tools and mandatory imprisonment with little judicial discretion) and expansive agency authority risk aggressive or disproportionate penalties and raise concerns about due process.
Data‑sharing and verification requirements (utilities handing over customer billing records, searchable databases, and public grant lists) create privacy and reputational risks for individual customers, small communities, and nonprofits if controls are inadequate.
Based on analysis of 14 sections of legislative text.
Establishes a fund funded by assessments on liable utilities, executives, and lobbyists to pay restitution to affected ratepayers, reimburse state advocates, and fund community restoration grants.
Creates a Ratepayer Justice Fund by assessing covered utilities, executives, and lobbyists for costs and unjust gains from documented misconduct, then uses those collections to pay direct restitution to eligible ratepayers, reimburse state consumer advocates, and fund community restoration grants. Sets up federal-state coordination, investigations and reporting requirements, a public database of assessments and grants, rules for verifying and issuing payments, and civil and criminal enforcement tools to collect assessments and punish responsible actors. Establishes procedures for identifying misconduct events, defining eligible ratepayers, calculating assessments, and distributing relief; requires intergovernmental coordination, a DOE/Treasury working group, annual reporting and GAO review of a nuclear-plant assessment, and grant and technical-assistance priorities for communities harmed by misconduct.