The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation filed by Representatives Steve Cohen (D-TN-09) and Tim Burchett (R-TN-02) that would require the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to publish the salaries of its top executives, Cohen announced in a Monday press release.
Titled the TVA Salary Transparency Act, the text of the two-page bill reveals new requirements would be posed for the TVA to provide annually “a report of the total number of employees at the management level or above, to include all executives and board members, that shall include the names, salaries, and duties” of employees “that are receiving compensation” higher than that allotted to the highest paid government employees.
The bill passed the House and is now eligible for a vote in the U.S. Senate, according to a press release from Cohen’s office.
Speaking on the House floor, Burchett reportedly declared, “If my constituents are going to rely on TVA every day for their energy, they deserve to know how TVA is spending its money.”
“If government money flows into it, we ought to know who they are paying and what they are paying,” he continued. “Transparency has been a problem with TVA in the past, but it has been getting better lately, and I want to make sure that pattern continues.”
In a statement released after the bill passed, Cohen said the bill “reflects a fair compromise between our legitimate congressional oversight responsibilities over TVA and the needs of TVA to retain and maintain a pool of talented, diverse, and effective management staff, executives, and board members.”
He noted, “I have asked TVA for salary transparency time and time again but have been refused information beyond the five highest-paid employees included in their annual SEC disclosure.”
Cohen said, “That is the kind of potential problem that could benefit from some Congressional oversight.”
An internal review of the 2022 blackouts experienced by customers in the TVA service area was published in May 2023. It found the power failures experienced by TVA facilities resulted in a $170 million economic impact for Tennesseans to absorb.
The report offered several areas for TVA to improve to prevent blackouts in the future. In 2023, TVA successfully avoided rolling blackouts with only “voluntary curtailment” of electricity consumption in specific areas.
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Georgia Star News, The Virginia Star, and the Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Tennessee Valley Authority Control Room” by Tennessee Valley Authority.
