Tennessee Valley Authority Salary Transparency Act
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Tennessee Valley Authority Salary Transparency Act amends the TVA Act's financial reporting section. Instead of the old financial statement language, TVA must provide a report of the total number of employees at the management level or above, including all executives and board members, who receive compensation at or above the maximum basic pay rate for GS-15. The report must include those employees' names, salaries, and duties. The bill also shields the salary information contained in or filed with that report from public disclosure under FOIA section 552(b)(3) and from the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act. The result is more detailed congressional oversight of TVA senior compensation, but not automatic public release of the individual salary information.
Who Benefits and How
Congressional oversight committees, TVA ratepayers, public power watchdog organizations, federal compensation analysts, and appropriations staff benefit from a more specific senior-compensation report covering TVA management, executives, and board members above the GS-15 threshold. TVA executives and senior managers also benefit from the FOIA and public-reporting exemptions that keep individual salary details from being broadly released through public records channels.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Tennessee Valley Authority, TVA Board staff, TVA human resources staff, TVA payroll offices, TVA legal staff, congressional report staff, public transparency advocates, and FOIA requesters bear the burden of compiling the compensation report or losing direct public access to salary information that is provided to Congress but exempted from public disclosure.
Key Provisions
- Requires TVA to report names, salaries, and duties of management-level employees, executives, and board members paid at or above the GS-15 maximum rate.
- Provides Congress with senior-compensation information rather than the older financial-statement wording.
- Exempts the salary information in or filed with the report from FOIA disclosure.
- Exempts the salary information from the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act.
- Modifies the TVA Act financial reporting section.
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
Requires the Tennessee Valley Authority Board to report annually to Congress the number, names, salaries, and duties of management-level employees, executives, and board members paid at or above the GS-15 maximum rate, while exempting salary information in that report from FOIA disclosure and the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act.
Key Policy Areas
Government Transparency, Utilities, Federal Administration
Primary Purpose
Requires the Tennessee Valley Authority Board to report annually to Congress the number, names, salaries, and duties of management-level employees, executives, and board members paid at or above the GS-15 maximum rate, while exempting salary information in that report from FOIA disclosure and the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Congressional oversight committees
- TVA ratepayers
- Public power watchdog organizations
- Federal compensation analysts
- Appropriations staff
- TVA executives
- TVA senior managers
Identified Costs
- Tennessee Valley Authority
- TVA Board staff
- TVA human resources staff
- TVA payroll offices
- TVA legal staff
- Public transparency advocates
- FOIA requesters
Sponsors
Steve Cohen
D-TN | Primary Sponsor
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to …
Considered as unfinished business. (consideration: CR H169-170)
Motion to reconsider laid on the table Agreed to without …
On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill …
Passed/agreed to in House: On motion to suspend the rules …
Mr. Graves moved to suspend the rules and pass the …
At the conclusion of debate, the Yeas and Nays were …
DEBATE - The House proceeded with forty minutes of debate …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
TVA executives, TVA senior managers, Tennessee Valley Authority
Positive-direction: TVA executives, TVA senior managers
Negative-direction: Tennessee Valley Authority
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