To require certain meetings of the Tennessee Valley Authority to be transparent and open to the public, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Tennessee Valley Authority Transparency Act of 2025 expands open-meeting rules for the TVA Board. The Board must meet at least four times each year. For purposes of the Government in the Sunshine Act, 'meeting' includes all deliberations of TVA Board members, board committees, and board subcommittees, even deliberations not scheduled to take action that will determine or result in official TVA business. Public announcement of meetings must include publication on the Board website. The ordinary one-week notice requirement does not apply when the chairman designates an emergency special meeting. The Board must publish on its website information required to be disclosed, made available, or publicly certified under the Sunshine Act. The Board may still withhold information about power availability requests and contract negotiations, including labor relations and procurement actions, when disclosure would imperil or compromise TVA's competitive position.
Who Benefits and How
TVA ratepayers, Tennessee Valley residents, public power customers, journalists, utility watchdog organizations, local governments served by TVA, public transparency advocates, and congressional overseers benefit from more public notice and online access to board deliberations and Sunshine Act disclosures. The bill makes informal deliberations and committee discussions harder to keep outside the public meeting framework.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The TVA Board, TVA committee members, TVA subcommittee members, TVA management, board website staff, legal compliance staff, meeting clerks, procurement staff, labor relations staff, and power availability staff must publish notices, hold covered deliberations under open-meeting rules, manage emergency designations, post disclosures, and justify confidentiality for competitive contract or power-availability information.
Key Provisions
- Requires the TVA Board to meet at least four times each year.
- Expands Sunshine Act meeting coverage to all board, committee, and subcommittee deliberations.
- Requires public meeting announcements to be published on the Board website.
- Allows emergency special meetings without the ordinary one-week notice.
- Requires online publication of Sunshine Act disclosures and public certifications.
- Preserves nondisclosure for power availability requests and competitively sensitive contract negotiations.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Amends the TVA Act to require the Tennessee Valley Authority Board to meet at least four times a year, treat all board, committee, and subcommittee deliberations as Sunshine Act meetings even when no formal action is scheduled, publish meeting announcements and disclosed information on the board website, allow emergency special meetings without one-week notice, and preserve exemptions for power availability requests and competitively sensitive contract negotiations.
Key Policy Areas
Government Transparency, Utilities, Public Power
Primary Purpose
Amends the TVA Act to require the Tennessee Valley Authority Board to meet at least four times a year, treat all board, committee, and subcommittee deliberations as Sunshine Act meetings even when no formal action is scheduled, publish meeting announcements and disclosed information on the board website, allow emergency special meetings without one-week notice, and preserve exemptions for power availability requests and competitively sensitive contract negotiations.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- TVA ratepayers
- Tennessee Valley residents
- Public power customers
- Journalists
- Utility watchdog organizations
- Local governments served by TVA
- Public transparency advocates
Identified Costs
- Tennessee Valley Authority Board
- TVA committee members
- TVA subcommittee members
- TVA management
- Board website staff
- Legal compliance staff
- Meeting clerks
Sponsors
Tim Burchett
R-TN | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Mr. Burchett (for himself and Mr. Cohen) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Board website staff, TVA committee members, Tennessee Valley Authority Board
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology