Sponsors (2)
The bill increases privacy protections and reduces reporting burden for TVA employees and administrators at the cost of substantially reducing public transparency and watchdog oversight of TVA compensation.
TVA employees (federal employees) will have individual payroll details exempted from public disclosure, protecting their salary privacy.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) will have clearer rules that simplify compliance when compiling and submitting its annual compensation report, reducing administrative burden.
Taxpayers, ratepayers, and the public will have reduced access to TVA employee salary information, limiting transparency about public-utility compensation and making it harder to evaluate pay fairness.
Journalists, researchers, and watchdog groups will have less ability to detect potential misuse, inequitable pay practices, or mismanagement at the TVA because payroll data are restricted.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Revises TVA annual reporting to add a compensation report and exempts TVA employee salary information from FOIA exemption 3 and a congressional-reporting law.
Revises the Tennessee Valley Authority's annual financial reporting to add a compensation report and creates a statutory exemption protecting TVA employee salary information from public disclosure under FOIA exemption 3 and from the Access to Congressionally Mandated Reports Act. The bill changes what the TVA Board must report and narrows public access to employee salary details without changing funding or imposing new deadlines.
Official title: To provide that the Federal Reports Elimination and Sunset Act of 1995 does not apply to certain reports required to be submitted by the Tennessee Valley Authority, and for other purposes.
Introduced January 3, 2025 by Stephen Cohen · Last progress January 16, 2025