Bowman Introduces Bill to Help People ‘Crushed by the Burden of High Prices’

Stressing the need for a “new economic playbook” that prioritizes human needs over corporate greed, U.S. Rep. Jamaal Bowman on Thursday introduced proposed legislation that would tackle excessive profiteering with targeted price controls.

“In my district and across the country, people simply cannot afford to live,” the New York Democrat said in a statement introducing the Emergency Price Stabilization Act. “From impossible rents and utility bills to soaring costs for food, healthcare, and other necessities of life, people in America are being crushed by the burden of high prices and wages that can’t keep pace.”

If passed by Congress and signed into law by President Joe Biden, Bowman’s bill would:

• Monitor and analyze price changes related to food, energy, housing, healthcare, transportation, and other goods and services that are vital to the country’s health and economic security;
• Proactively investigate corporate profiteering in those areas, including price gouging linked to supply chain disruptions, by using subpoena power to open up and examine corporate books;
• Make recommendations to the president for appropriate, strategic controls and regulations to limit growth and reduce volatility in those key prices, which the president may implement;
• Engage and mobilize the public as part of the process of monitoring and regulating prices, and harness the expertise of federal agencies, outside experts, unions, and community organizations; and
• Propose complementary measures to ensure adequate supply of relevant goods and services, expand productive capacity, and meet climate and public health standards in the application of any price controls or regulations.

Bowman added that “We cannot simply step back and allow the Federal Reserve, which hiked interest rates again last week, to address inflation on the backs of everyday people. That approach means throwing people out of work and risking a recession.”

Originally published at Commondreams.org.