Auto Insurance

Floor Speech

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, my residents still pay the highest auto insurance rates in the Nation. Auto insurance discrimination continues to keep our residents in the cycle of poverty.

I want to ask the American people and the auto insurance industry: What does your education level, your marital status, your occupation, your employment status, your credit score, your ZIP Code, or your homeownership status have to do with whether or not you are a good driver?

Right now, the auto insurance industry is determining rates based on these nondriving factors, so I introduced the Prohibit Auto Insurance Discrimination Act with my good colleague Representative Watson Coleman. One of the factors, again, to determine driving ability should not be these nondriving factors, yet my residents still see and face higher insurance rates.

University of Michigan's Poverty Solutions did a study showing somebody with a DUI, driving under the influence, was paying three times less than the person with no DUI violation. The difference was the person with the DUI had a higher credit score than the person that had a better driving record. Again, these factors should not be determining people's auto insurance rates.

Again, that is why it is important for us to be able to support the PAID Act to prohibit auto insurance discrimination. My colleagues must join me in passing this important critical bill to address these shameless practices by the auto insurance industry. Social Security Is Vital

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, Social Security is a vital part of our social safety net in our country. It keeps more people out of poverty than any other governmental program, nearly 23 million people.

I wasn't surprised when the number one question and concern that was brought up in our telephone townhall throughout the district--over 9,000 people participated--was what is going to happen to Social Security. For most seniors, Social Security is their largest source of income.

Cutting Social Security would be a disastrous policy choice for our communities, and it would absolutely be a choice that is decided here, not a necessity.

We should be strengthening and expanding Social Security, not cutting it.

That is why I support the Social Security Expansion Act. It is very critical because it would increase benefits by $2,400 annually and ensure that program is funded for the next 75 years.

We must protect Social Security. Every senior in our country deserves to retire with dignity, and every person living with a disability deserves to live with economic security. I won't let them cut Social Security on my watch. Water Is Life

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Ms. TLAIB. Mr. Speaker, we all know that water is life. Safe, accessible, affordable drinking water is a human right.

In 2021, I was proud to be able to work with the Energy and Commerce Committee and Congresswoman Dingell to establish the Low Income Household Water Assistance Program where we helped establish a $1.2 billion program to help many of our families pay off their water bills and debts and keep people's water connected, especially during the pandemic.

This program saved countless lives. Millions of Americans today are still struggling to keep up with their water bills and many have their water shut off.

We introduced the Half-Century Update for Water Access and Affordability Act to establish a permanent low-income drinking water assistance program within the EPA. Our program will dedicate funding every single year to keep people's water flowing. We do it for gas. We do it for electricity. Why don't we do it for water? The program will include reconnection assistance, but what I also love, it will help with water efficiency upgrades like plumbing repairs to many of our families that live in old homes.

We are going to set up a community advisory committee made up of residents, nonprofits, utilities, and other local stakeholders to help advise the EPA how to implement this program more effectively.

Mr. Speaker, the H2O UP Act will ban the practice of water shutoffs as punishment for not being able to afford your bills. This is the richest country in the world, and we know it is just simply inhumane to have many of our families not have access to water.

Watching a couple in their seventies in the city of Detroit after working all their lives retire to have to melt snow in a white bucket so they can flush their toilet is inhumane. Again, it is inhumane for us not to have a program to help people with their water bills.

Congress just approved nearly a trillion dollars for weapons in war. Please, for all of my colleagues, I don't want to hear that we don't have the money to help our families here at home. We must again ensure access to water. It is critical for public health. It is critical for our families.

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