Blackburn, Hagerty introduce 'critical' TVA salary transparency bill in U.S. Senate
U.S. Sens. Marsha Blackburn and Bill Hagerty introduced a bill in the Senate that would require the Tennessee Valley Authority to make public far more salaries paid to its employees.
TVA reports only the salaries of its five highest-paid executives. U.S. Reps. Tim Burchett of Knoxville and Steve Cohen of Memphis jointly introduced the TVA Salary Transparency Act in the U.S. House of Representatives in January to force more disclosures from the nation's largest public power provider.
The bill would require TVA to report salaries of employees making more than $123,041 per year, based on the highest pay grade for federal employees in a system called the General Schedule. It passed in the House unanimously on Jan. 15.
TVA is funded by sales of electricity to 10 million customers in seven Southeast states, and its employees' salaries do not come from taxpayer dollars. The federal utility had 11,312 employees last year, according to its latest annual financial report. It reported the median total compensation for all employees was $163,779.
With its introduction to the Senate announced April 9, the bill has the clearest shot at becoming law after similar efforts stalled after being passed through the House.
'The government and public utilities owned by the government work for the American people – not the other way around,' Blackburn said in a news release. 'This legislation would provide critical transparency into the salaries of federal employees at the TVA by reinstating the requirement that TVA report this information to Congress.'
Salaries of federal employees are generally considered public information, but TVA has been exempt for decades, citing the 1995 Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act that got rid of certain reporting requirements. The new legislation would reverse the exemption.
Burchett and Cohen previously introduced the bill, and it passed the House through a voice vote in March 2024, but it never reached a vote in the Senate and expired with the last session of Congress.
Blackburn and Hagerty have focused their attention in recent weeks on overhauling the leadership at TVA, particularly the board of directors that is nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate.
After they published an op-ed criticizing the board for what they said was an overly political and bureaucratic approach, they celebrated the termination of two board members at the direction of President Donald Trump and said they would work to get new members confirmed.
Daniel Dassow is a growth and development reporter focused on technology and energy. Email: daniel.dassow@knoxnews.com. Signal: @danieldassow.24.
Allie Feinberg reports on politics for Knox News. Email her: allie.feinberg@knoxnews.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @alliefeinberg.
Support strong local journalism by subscribing at knoxnews.com/subscribe.
This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Blackburn, Hagerty introduce TVA salary transparency bill in U.S. Senate
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