II 

Calendar No. 254 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 607 

[Report No. 116–134] 

To amend the Department of Energy Organization Act to address insufficient 

compensation of employees and other personnel of the Federal Energy 

Regulatory Commission, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 

Mr. CASSIDY (for himself, Mr. GARDNER, and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced 

the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee 

on Energy and Natural Resources 

OCTOBER 22, 2019 

Reported by Ms. MURKOWSKI, with an amendment 

[Insert the part printed in italic] 

A BILL 

To amend the Department of Energy Organization Act to 

address insufficient compensation of employees and other 

personnel of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, 

and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Timely Review of In3 frastructure Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF 

5 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE 

6 FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMIS7 SION. 

8 (a) IN GENERAL.—Section 401 of the Department of 

9 Energy Organization Act (42 U.S.C. 7171) is amended 

10 by adding at the end the following: 

11 ‘‘(k) ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF

12 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE COMMIS13 SION.— 

14 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other 

15 provision of law, if the Chairman publicly certifies 

16 that compensation for a category of employees or 

17 other personnel of the Commission is insufficient to 

18 retain or attract employees and other personnel to 

19 allow the Commission to carry out the functions of 

20 the Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

21 manner, the Chairman may fix the compensation for 

22 the category of employees or other personnel without 

23 regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 

24 53 of title 5, United States Code, or any other civil 

25 service law. 


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1 ‘‘(2) CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.—A cer2 tification issued under paragraph (1) shall— 

3 ‘‘(A) apply with respect to a category of 

4 employees or other personnel responsible for 

5 conducting work of a scientific, technological, 

6 engineering, or mathematical nature; 

7 ‘‘(B) specify a maximum amount of rea8 sonable compensation for the category of em9 ployees or other personnel; 

10 ‘‘(C) be valid for a 5-year period beginning 

11 on the date on which the certification is issued; 

12 ‘‘(D) be no broader than necessary to 

13 achieve the objective of retaining or attracting 

14 employees and other personnel to allow the 

15 Commission to carry out the functions of the 

16 Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

17 manner; and 

18 ‘‘(E) include an explanation for why the 

19 other approaches available to the Chairman for 

20 retaining and attracting employees and other 

21 personnel are inadequate. 

22 ‘‘(3) RENEWAL.— 

23 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 90 

24 days before the date of expiration of a certifi25 cation issued under paragraph (1), the ChairVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Oct 22, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S607.RS S607

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1 man shall determine whether the certification 

2 should be renewed for a subsequent 5-year pe3 riod. 

4 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT.—If the Chairman de5 termines that a certification should be renewed 

6 under subparagraph (A), the Chairman may 

7 renew the certification, subject to the certifi8 cation requirements under paragraph (2) that 

9 were applicable to the initial certification. 

10 ‘‘(4) NEW HIRES.— 

11 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—An employee or other 

12 personnel that is a member of a category of em13 ployees or other personnel that would have been 

14 covered by a certification issued under para15 graph (1), but was hired during a period in 

16 which the certification has expired and has not 

17 been renewed under paragraph (3) shall not be 

18 eligible for compensation at the level that would 

19 have applied to the employee or other personnel 

20 if the certification had been in effect on the 

21 date on which the employee or other personnel 

22 was hired. 

23 ‘‘(B) COMPENSATION OF NEW HIRES ON

24 RENEWAL.—On renewal of a certification under 

25 paragraph (3), the Chairman may fix the comVerDate Sep 11 2014 23:03 Oct 22, 2019 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S607.RS S607

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1 pensation of the employees or other personnel 

2 described in subparagraph (A) at the level es3 tablished for the category of employees or other 

4 personnel in the certification. 

5 ‘‘(5) RETENTION OF LEVEL OF FIXED COM6 PENSATION.—A category of employees or other per7 sonnel, the compensation of which was fixed by the 

8 Chairman in accordance with paragraph (1), may, at 

9 the discretion of the Chairman, have the level of 

10 fixed compensation for the category of employees or 

11 other personnel retained, regardless of whether a 

12 certification described under that paragraph is in ef13 fect with respect to the compensation of the category 

14 of employees or other personnel. 

15 ‘‘(6) CONSULTATION REQUIRED.—The Chair16 man shall consult with the Director of the Office of 

17 Personnel Management in implementing this sub18 section, including in the determination of the 

19 amount of compensation with respect to each cat20 egory of employees or other personnel. 

21 ‘‘(7) EXPERTS AND CONSULTANTS.— 

22 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara23 graph (B), the Chairman may— 


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1 ‘‘(i) obtain the services of experts and 

2 consultants in accordance with section 

3 3109 of title 5, United States Code; 

4 ‘‘(ii) compensate those experts and 

5 consultants for each day (including travel 

6 time) at rates not in excess of the rate of 

7 pay for level IV of the Executive Schedule 

8 under section 5315 of that title; and 

9 ‘‘(iii) pay to the experts and consult10 ants serving away from the homes or reg11 ular places of business of the experts and 

12 consultants travel expenses and per diem 

13 in lieu of subsistence at rates authorized 

14 by sections 5702 and 5703 of that title for 

15 persons in Government service employed 

16 intermittently. 

17 ‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—The Chairman 

18 shall— 

19 ‘‘(i) to the maximum extent prac20 ticable, limit the use of experts and con21 sultants pursuant to subparagraph (A); 

22 and 

23 ‘‘(ii) ensure that the employment con24 tract of each expert and consultant em25 ployed pursuant to subparagraph (A) is 


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1 subject to renewal not less frequently than 

2 annually.’’. 

3 (b) REPORTS.— 

4 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 1 year after 

5 the date of enactment of this Act, and every 2 years 

6 thereafter for 10 years, the Chairman of the Federal 

7 Energy Regulatory Commission shall submit to the 

8 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 

9 of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 

10 and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on in11 formation relating to hiring, vacancies, and com12 pensation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com13 mission. 

14 (2) INCLUSIONS.—Each report under para15 graph (1) shall include— 

16 (A) an analysis of any trends with respect 

17 to hiring, vacancies, and compensation at the 

18 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and 

19 (B) a description of the efforts to retain 

20 and attract employees or other personnel re21 sponsible for conducting work of a scientific, 

22 technological, engineering, or mathematical na23 ture at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com24 mission. 


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1 (c) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub2 section (a) shall apply beginning on the date that is 30 

3 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 

4 SEC. 3. REPORT ON THE AUTHORITY OF THE SECRETARY 

5 OF ENERGY TO IMPLEMENT FLEXIBLE COM6 PENSATION MODELS. 

7 Not later than 180 days after the date of enactment 

8 of this Act, the Secretary of Energy shall submit to Congress 

9 a report examining the full scope of the hiring authority 

10 made available to the Secretary by the Office of Personnel 

11 Management to implement flexible compensation models, 

12 including pay for performance and pay banding, through13 out the Department of Energy, including at the National 

14 Laboratories, for the purposes of hiring, recruiting, and re15 taining employees responsible for conducting work of a sci16 entific, technological, engineering, or mathematical nature. 


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Calendar No. 254 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 607 

[Report No. 116–134] 

A BILL 

To amend the Department of Energy Organization 

poses. ergy Regulatory Commission, and for other purployees and other personnel of the Federal EnAct to address insufficient compensation of emOCTOBER 22, 2019 

Reported with an amendment 


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