Sponsor
Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick
Representative · D-FL
Representative · D-FL
The bill delivers targeted, refundable relief and stronger price‑gouging protections for households during an energy crisis but does so by expanding executive emergency authority, raising federal costs, creating eligibility exclusions and administrative uncertainty.
Middle‑income households (defined $80k–$160k) would receive a refundable, household‑size and region‑adjusted tax credit to offset higher commuting, grocery, and utility costs during the war energy emergency.
Eligibility and benefit design are standardized (clear 'middle‑income' band and size/region adjustments), reducing confusion for beneficiaries and tax administrators and improving targeting of relief.
Enhanced price‑gouging enforcement during the emergency would lower the risk of sudden, excessive price spikes for essential fuels, heating, electricity, and staples, protecting consumers (particularly low‑ and middle‑income households).
The refundable credit and other relief measures increase federal outlays and could raise the deficit or require offsetting spending cuts or revenue increases, imposing costs on taxpayers.
Tying emergency powers and measures to presidential and agency determinations expands executive wartime/emergency authority and can reduce congressional oversight over the measures' implementation and duration.
The $80k–$160k eligibility band and other limits exclude many low‑income households and nonresident aliens and create cliff effects that leave households near cutoffs without relief, producing fairness concerns.
Based on analysis of 5 sections of legislative text.
Provides a refundable tax credit for middle‑income households during a war‑related energy emergency and makes grossly excessive price increases for fuels, energy, and essentials unlawful under the FTC Act.
Official title: To provide emergency, targeted relief to middle-income Americans facing higher costs of living arising from war-related disruptions in global energy markets caused by the current conflict involving the United States, Israel, and Iran, and to prevent war profiteering in essential goods, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 9, 2026 by Sheila Cherfilus-McCormick · Last progress April 9, 2026
Creates temporary relief and anti‑profiteering tools tied to a declared ‘‘war‑related energy cost emergency’’ from the U.S.–Israel–Iran conflict. It provides a refundable, administratively set “war inflation credit” for middle‑income households during the emergency and makes excessive price increases on fuels, energy, and essential consumer staples an unfair or deceptive practice enforceable by the FTC and Justice Department for the duration of the emergency period.