Western Area Power Administration Transparency Act

II Calendar No. 262 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1931 [Report No. 116–142] To require the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration to establish a pilot project to provide increased transparency for cus- tomers, and for other purposes. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 20, 2019 Ms. MCSALLY (for herself and Ms. SINEMA) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Nat- ural Resources OCTOBER 23, 2019 Reported by Ms. MURKOWSKI, without amendment A BILL To require the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration to establish a pilot project to provide increased transparency for customers, and for other pur- poses. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 2 •S 1931 RS SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Western Area Power 2 Administration Transparency Act’’. 3 SEC. 2. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION PILOT 4 PROJECT. 5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 6 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 7 Western Area Power Administration (referred to in this 8 section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall— 9 (1) establish a pilot project, as part of the con- 10 tinuous process improvement program and to pro- 11 vide increased transparency for customers— 12 (A) to make available a database of infor- 13 mation relating to the Western Area Power Ad- 14 ministration in accordance with paragraph (2); 15 and 16 (B) to provide annual updates to the data- 17 base in accordance with subsection (b); and 18 (2) publish on a publicly available website of 19 the Western Area Power Administration, a database 20 of the following information, beginning with fiscal 21 year 2008, relating to the Western Area Power Ad- 22 ministration: 23 (A) By power system and in a consistent 24 format, rates charged to customers for power 25 and transmission service. 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 3 •S 1931 RS (B) By power system, the amount of ca- 1 pacity or energy sold. 2 (C) By region, an accounting, at the task 3 level, budget activity level, organizational code 4 level, and object class level, of all expenditures, 5 including— 6 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 7 costs; 8 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca- 9 tions; 10 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 11 (iv) costs related to independent con- 12 sultants; 13 (v) the number of full-time equiva- 14 lents; 15 (vi) charges to the region from the 16 headquarters office of the Western Area 17 Power Administration for all annual and 18 capital costs; and 19 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 20 other Federal agencies or programs or 21 third parties for the administration of pro- 22 grams not related to the marketing, trans- 23 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro- 24 power resources within the Western Area 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 4 •S 1931 RS Power Administration marketing area, in- 1 cluding— 2 (I) indirect costs, including over- 3 head costs; 4 (II) direct charges and alloca- 5 tions; 6 (III) costs related to contract 7 staff; and 8 (IV) the number of full-time 9 equivalents. 10 (D) For the headquarters office of the 11 Western Area Power Administration, an ac- 12 counting, at the task level, budget activity level, 13 organizational code level, and object class level, 14 of all expenditures, including— 15 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 16 costs; 17 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca- 18 tions; 19 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 20 (iv) costs related to independent con- 21 sultants; 22 (v) the number of full-time equiva- 23 lents; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 5 •S 1931 RS (vi) a summary of any expenditures 1 described in this paragraph, with the total 2 amount paid by each region and power sys- 3 tem; and 4 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 5 other Federal agencies or programs or 6 third parties for the administration of pro- 7 grams not related to the marketing, trans- 8 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro- 9 power resources within the Western Area 10 Power Administration marketing area, in- 11 cluding— 12 (I) indirect costs, including over- 13 head costs; 14 (II) direct charges and alloca- 15 tions; 16 (III) costs related to contract 17 staff; and 18 (IV) the number of full-time 19 equivalents. 20 (E) Capital expenditures for each project, 21 including— 22 (i) capital investments delineated by 23 the year in which each investment is placed 24 into service; and 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 6 •S 1931 RS (ii) the sources of capital for each in- 1 vestment. 2 (b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 3 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 4 after the end of each fiscal year in which the pilot 5 project is being carried out under this section, the 6 Administrator shall make available on a publicly 7 available website— 8 (A) updates to documents made available 9 on the date of the initial publication of the in- 10 formation on the website under subsection 11 (a)(2); 12 (B) an identification of the annual changes 13 in the information published on the website 14 under subsection (a)(2); 15 (C) the reasons for the changes identified 16 under subparagraph (B); 17 (D) subject to paragraph (2), the total 18 amount of the unobligated balances retained by 19 the Western Area Power Administration at the 20 end of the prior fiscal year within each project 21 and headquarters by— 22 (i) purpose or function; 23 (ii) source of funding; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS 7 •S 1931 RS (iii) anticipated program allotment; 1 and 2 (iv) underlying authority for each 3 source of funding; and 4 (E) the anticipated level of unobligated 5 balances that the Western Area Power Adminis- 6 tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 7 year in which the annual summary is published, 8 as delineated by each of the categories de- 9 scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara- 10 graph (D). 11 (2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo- 12 rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 13 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (commonly known as 14 the ‘‘Colorado River Storage Project Act’’) (43 15 U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not be considered to be an 16 unobligated balance retained by the Western Area 17 Power Administration for purposes of paragraph 18 (1)(D). 19 (c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec- 20 tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 21 date of enactment of this Act. 22 VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS Calendar No. 262 116TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION S. 1931 [Report No. 116–142] A BILL To require the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration to establish a pilot project to provide increased transparency for customers, and for other purposes. OCTOBER 23, 2019 Reported without amendment VerDate Sep 11 2014 22:00 Oct 23, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\S1931.RS S1931 kjohnson on DSK79L0C42 with BILLS