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CIVIC HERALD
HR 4626 · 119th Congress · HouseIn committee

Home Appliance Protection and Affordability Act

In plain language: This bill restricts the federal government's ability to create stricter energy and water efficiency standards for household appliances like stoves, washers, and water heaters. To adopt a new standard, the Department of Energy must show that utility bill savings will outweigh any higher purchase and maintenance costs within three years without reducing product quality or lifespan. The measure also prevents regulators from enacting rules that effectively ban appliances based on the fuel they burn, such as natural gas, and sets up a process to revoke existing standards that increase consumer costs.

Provisional: our plain-language summary, pending review.

Provisionalunreviewed: impact, provisions, stakeholders, summary
People affected—not determinable from the text provided
Fiscal magnitude—not determinable from the text provided
Reach68provisional · pending reviewrigor: heuristic llm
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Issues

What this bill touches.

Energy sources−35Greenhouse-gas policy−40Regulation (cross-sector)−60

The sign shows the bill's direction on each issue (+ toward, − away); the number is its magnitude. Color never encodes good or bad, and never party.

Who it affects

Who it helps · who it burdens.

Who it helps

  • Appliance manufacturers and importersGains a mandatory five-year compliance window after any final standard is published, relief from mandatory six-year recurring reviews, protection from standards that fail a three-year cost-recovery test, and the ability to petition for standard revocations under Sec. 2(a)-(c). Additionally, Sec. 2(d) ensures regional standards apply based on manufacture or import date rather than installation date.provisional
  • Electric distribution transformer manufacturersPermanently protected from any new or amended Department of Energy energy conservation standards under Sec. 3.provisional
  • Appliance consumersGains statutory protections against efficiency regulations that increase net costs within the first three years of ownership, degrade appliance performance or lifespan, or ban appliances based on fuel type under Sec. 2(c)(3)(B), (D), and (E).provisional

Who it burdens

  • Department of EnergySubject to extensive procedural requirements before issuing standards, including mandatory quantitative economic analyses, 60-day public comment periods, publishing test procedures 180 days prior, disclosing five years of meetings with certain Chinese-affiliated advocacy groups, deciding revocation petitions within 180 days, and conducting post-implementation evaluations within two years under Sec. 2.provisional
  • Department of JusticeMust evaluate and submit a written determination to the Department of Energy on the market competition impacts of any proposed appliance efficiency standard within 60 days of publication under Sec. 2(c)(3)(F)(ii).provisional
  • Clothes washer and dishwasher manufacturersSubject to potential new design rules and specific performance caps on energy and water consumption explicitly authorized for the Department of Energy to prescribe under Sec. 4.provisional

Dollar-level funding (FEC sector totals) is coming in a later phase.

What it does

The provisions, in plain language.

  1. Makes Department of Energy reviews of appliance efficiency standards discretionary rather than mandatory every six years, gives the agency two years to finalize rules once proposed, and gives manufacturers five years to comply after a final rule is published.

    Sec. 2(a)provisional

  2. Requires the Department of Energy to grant petitions to consider revoking or amending an appliance standard if evidence shows it increases consumer costs, lacks significant energy savings, is technologically unfeasible, or restricts commercial availability, and requires a final decision within 180 days.

    Sec. 2(b)provisional

  3. Prohibits the Department of Energy from adopting an efficiency standard unless estimated consumer utility bill savings over the first three years exceed the extra costs to purchase, install, and maintain the appliance.

    Sec. 2(c)(3)(B)provisional

  4. Prohibits efficiency standards unless they reduce an appliance's energy or water use by at least 10 percent or achieve at least 0.3 quads of nationwide site energy savings over 30 years.

    Sec. 2(c)(3)(C)provisional

  5. Bars efficiency standards that reduce product performance, features, lifespan, or operating utility, or that effectively ban appliances based on the type of fuel they consume.

    Sec. 2(c)(3)(D)-(E)provisional

  6. Prohibits the Department of Energy from using estimates of the social costs of greenhouse gas emissions when evaluating appliance standards, requiring it instead to prioritize consumer costs and consult the Department of Justice on competition impacts.

    Sec. 2(c)(3)(F)provisional

  7. Requires the Department of Energy to reevaluate new standards within two years of issuance and automatically voids any standard that is found not to be technologically feasible or economically justified.

    Sec. 2(c)(3)(G)provisional

  8. Permanently prohibits the Department of Energy from issuing any new or amended energy efficiency standards for electric distribution transformers.

    Sec. 3provisional

How your members of Congress line up

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Timeline

How it moved.

  1. Feb 25, 2026Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  2. Feb 24, 2026Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without objection.
  3. Feb 24, 2026On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 217 - 190 (Roll no. 76). (text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR H4679-4681)
  4. Feb 24, 2026Passed/agreed to in House: On passage Passed by the Yeas and Nays: 217 - 190 (Roll no. 76). (text of amendment in the nature of a substitute: CR H4679-4681)
  5. Feb 24, 2026On motion to recommit Failed by the Yeas and Nays: 197 - 208 (Roll no. 75). (CR H2285)
  6. Feb 24, 2026Rules Committee Resolution H. Res. 1075 Reported to House. Rule provides for consideration of H.R. 4626 and H.R. 4758. The resolution provides for consideration of H.R. 4626 and H.R. 4758 under a closed rule with one motion to recommit for each bill. The resolution provides for one hour of general debate on each bill.
  7. Jan 30, 2026Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. H. Rept. 119-470.
  8. Jan 30, 2026Reported (Amended) by the Committee on Energy and Commerce. H. Rept. 119-470.
  9. Dec 3, 2025Ordered to be Reported by the Yeas and Nays: 26 - 22.
  10. Jul 23, 2025Introduced in House
  11. Jul 23, 2025Introduced in House

The original text

Read it for yourself.

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Sources & provenance

Congress.govrefreshed 9 days ago

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