On Wednesday, New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released a package of six extremely exciting bills that focus on transparency and advocacy for low-income people. The bills, which come in a package called “A Just Society,” have the potential to be life-changing for the roughly 40 million Americans who live in poverty.

Why? First of all, the packaged bills give more people access to important federal benefits, like Medicaid. Her proposal extends that coverage to people who are undocumented. Now that is major. The bills also call for expanding who can access benefits by updating the way the federal government determines the poverty line. As this proposal wishes it, the federal poverty line would be expanded to include costs like Internet access (as a side note, it’s nice to see a politician acknowledge that the Internet is basically a necessity in today’s world) and childcare. It also calls for the poverty line to be adjustable based on where a person lives, which is huge in itself.

Wondering how big of a deal the federal poverty line is? Right now, according to the federal government, if you are a single person and you make less than $12,500 per year, you’re considered “poor.” If you make more than that, you’re … fine, according to the federal government.

Now, really think about how little money that is to live on, and how many people make more than that but are still struggling to survive. What’s dangerous is that while many people may technically make more than $12,500 per year, doing so means they lose out on programs like Medicaid or food stamps, which pushes them further backward. You miss out on benefits, but you’re working yourself to the bone and (likely) going into debt or going hungry. Basically: the working poor.

"I think one of the things that, that we can get done is build popular support in acknowledging how bad the problem already is. In doing so, we can actually begin to fundamentally address those problems," Ocasio-Cortez told NPR in an interview. "If we can acknowledge how many Americans are actually in poverty I think that we can start to address some of the more systemic issues in our economy."

One bill, called the Uplift Workers Act, aims to create a “worker-friendliness” ranking for federal contractors, so the federal government can choose not to fund jobs that don’t offer a living wage, paid leave, or overtime for employees who work more than 40 hours per week.

Another bill in the package rallies for a cap on rent increases, set at 3% per year. This would be a major win for renters. The bill would also help prevent landlords from discriminating against possible tenants based on their source of income.