IB Union Calendar No. 533 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 4444 [Report No. 116–649] 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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES SEPTEMBER 20, 2019 Mr. GOSAR (for himself, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. COX of California, Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. KING of Iowa, Mr. LAMALFA, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. MCADAMS, Mr. MCCLINTOCK, Mr. SCHWEIKERT, Ms. TITUS, Mrs. KIRKPATRICK, Mr. O’HALLERAN, and Mr. BUCK) introduced the following bill; which was re- ferred to the Committee on Natural Resources DECEMBER 15, 2020 Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources; committed to the Com- mittee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 2 •HR 4444 RH 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. VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6652 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 3 •HR 4444 RH Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Western Area Power 4 Administration Transparency Act’’. 5 SEC. 2. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION PILOT 6 PROJECT. 7 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 8 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 9 Western Area Power Administration (referred to in this 10 section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall establish a pilot 11 project, as part of the continuous process improvement 12 program and to provide increased transparency for cus- 13 tomers, to publish on a publicly available website of the 14 Western Area Power Administration, a database of the fol- 15 lowing information, beginning with fiscal year 2008, relat- 16 ing to the Western Area Power Administration: 17 (1) By power system and in a consistent for- 18 mat, rates charged to customers for power and 19 transmission service. 20 (2) By power system, the amount of capacity or 21 energy sold. 22 (3) By region, a detailed accounting, at the 23 functional level and the budget activity level, of all 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 4 •HR 4444 RH expenditures, capital costs, and staffing costs, in- 1 cluding— 2 (A) indirect costs, including overhead 3 costs; 4 (B) direct charges and direct allocations; 5 (C) the number of contract staff; 6 (D) costs related to independent consult- 7 ants; 8 (E) the number of full-time equivalents; 9 and 10 (F) charges to the region from the head- 11 quarters office of the Western Area Power Ad- 12 ministration for all annual and capital costs. 13 (4) For the headquarters office of the Western 14 Area Power Administration, a detailed accounting at 15 the functional level and the budget activity level, of 16 all expenditures and capital costs, including— 17 (A) indirect costs, including overhead 18 costs; 19 (B) direct charges and direct allocations; 20 (C) the number of contract staff; 21 (D) costs related to independent consult- 22 ants; 23 (E) the number of full-time equivalents; 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 5 •HR 4444 RH (F) a summary of any expenditures de- 1 scribed in this paragraph, with the total 2 amount paid by each region and power system; 3 and 4 (G) expenses incurred on behalf of other 5 Federal agencies or programs or third parties 6 for the administration of programs not related 7 to the marketing, transmission, or wheeling of 8 Federal hydropower resources, including— 9 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 10 costs; 11 (ii) direct charges and allocations; 12 (iii) the number of contract staff; and 13 (iv) the number of full-time equiva- 14 lents. 15 (5) Capital expenditures, including— 16 (A) capital investments delineated by the 17 year in which each investment is placed into 18 service; and 19 (B) the sources of capital for each invest- 20 ment. 21 (b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 22 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 23 after the end of each fiscal year in which the pilot 24 project is being carried out under this section, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 6 •HR 4444 RH Administrator shall make available on a publicly 1 available website— 2 (A) updates to documents made available 3 on the date of the initial publication of the in- 4 formation on the website under subsection (a); 5 (B) an identification of the magnitude of 6 annual changes in the information published on 7 the website under subsection (a); 8 (C) a description of the reasons for the 9 changes identified under subparagraph (B); 10 (D) subject to paragraph (2), the total 11 amount of the unobligated balances retained by 12 the Western Area Power Administration at the 13 end of the prior fiscal year within each mar- 14 keting area and headquarters by— 15 (i) purpose or function; 16 (ii) source of funding; 17 (iii) anticipated program allotment; 18 and 19 (iv) underlying authority for each 20 source of funding; and 21 (E) the anticipated level of unobligated 22 balances that the Western Area Power Adminis- 23 tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 24 year in which the annual summary is published, 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS 7 •HR 4444 RH as delineated by each of the categories de- 1 scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara- 2 graph (D). 3 (2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo- 4 rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 5 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (commonly known as 6 the ‘‘Colorado River Storage Project Act’’) (43 7 U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not considered to be an unob- 8 ligated balance retained by the Western Area Power 9 Administration for purposes of paragraph (1)(D). 10 (c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec- 11 tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 12 date of enactment of this Act. 13 VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS Union Calendar No. 533 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION H. R. 4444 [Report No. 116–649] 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. DECEMBER 15, 2020 Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered to be printed VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:39 Dec 15, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6651 Sfmt 6651 E:\BILLS\H4444.RH H4444 pamtmann on DSKBC07HB2PROD with BILLS