II 

115TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 8 

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 

NOVEMBER 27, 2018 

Mr. CASSIDY (for himself and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

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, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Timely Review of In5 frastructure Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF 

2 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE 

3 FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMIS4 SION. 

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

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

7 by adding at the end the following: 

8 ‘‘(k) ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF

9 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE COMMIS10 SION.— 

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

12 provision of law, if the Chairman publicly certifies 

13 that compensation for a category of employees or 

14 other personnel of the Commission is insufficient to 

15 retain or attract employees and other personnel to 

16 allow the Commission to carry out the functions of 

17 the Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

18 manner, the Chairman may fix the compensation for 

19 the category of employees or other personnel without 

20 regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 

21 53 of title 5, United States Code, or any other civil 

22 service law. 

23 ‘‘(2) CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.—A cer24 tification issued under paragraph (1) shall— 

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

26 employees or other personnel responsible for 


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1 conducting work of a scientific, technological, 

2 engineering, or mathematical nature; 

3 ‘‘(B) specify a maximum amount of rea4 sonable compensation for the category of em5 ployees or other personnel; 

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

7 on the date on which the certification is issued; 

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

9 achieve the objective of retaining or attracting 

10 employees and other personnel to allow the 

11 Commission to carry out the functions of the 

12 Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

13 manner; and 

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

15 other approaches available to the Chairman for 

16 retaining and attracting employees and other 

17 personnel are inadequate. 

18 ‘‘(3) RENEWAL.— 

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

20 days before the date of expiration of a certifi21 cation issued under paragraph (1), the Chair22 man shall determine whether the certification 

23 should be renewed for a subsequent 5-year pe24 riod. 


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1 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT.—If the Chairman de2 termines that a certification should be renewed 

3 under subparagraph (A), the Chairman may 

4 renew the certification, subject to the certifi5 cation requirements under paragraph (2) that 

6 were applicable to the initial certification. 

7 ‘‘(4) NEW HIRES.— 

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

9 personnel that is a member of a category of em10 ployees or other personnel that would have been 

11 covered by a certification issued under para12 graph (1), but was hired during a period in 

13 which the certification has expired and has not 

14 been renewed under paragraph (3) shall not be 

15 eligible for compensation at the level that would 

16 have applied to the employee or other personnel 

17 if the certification had been in effect on the 

18 date on which the employee or other personnel 

19 was hired. 

20 ‘‘(B) COMPENSATION OF NEW HIRES ON

21 RENEWAL.—On renewal of a certification under 

22 paragraph (3), the Chairman may fix the com23 pensation of the employees or other personnel 

24 described in subparagraph (A) at the level esVerDate Sep 11 2014 02:35 Nov 28, 2018 Jkt 089200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S8.IS S8

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1 tablished for the category of employees or other 

2 personnel in the certification. 

3 ‘‘(5) RETENTION OF LEVEL OF FIXED COM4 PENSATION.—A category of employees or other per5 sonnel, the compensation of which was fixed by the 

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

7 the discretion of the Chairman, have the level of 

8 fixed compensation for the category of employees or 

9 other personnel retained, regardless of whether a 

10 certification described under that paragraph is in ef11 fect with respect to the compensation of the category 

12 of employees or other personnel. 

13 ‘‘(6) CONSULTATION REQUIRED.—The Chair14 man shall consult with the Director of the Office of 

15 Personnel Management in implementing this sub16 section, including in the determination of the 

17 amount of compensation with respect to each cat18 egory of employees or other personnel. 

19 ‘‘(7) EXPERTS AND CONSULTANTS.— 

20 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara21 graph (B), the Chairman may— 

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

23 consultants in accordance with section 

24 3109 of title 5, United States Code; 


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1 ‘‘(ii) compensate those experts and 

2 consultants for each day (including travel 

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

4 pay for level IV of the Executive Schedule 

5 under section 5315 of that title; and 

6 ‘‘(iii) pay to the experts and consult7 ants serving away from the homes or reg8 ular places of business of the experts and 

9 consultants travel expenses and per diem 

10 in lieu of subsistence at rates authorized 

11 by sections 5702 and 5703 of that title for 

12 persons in Government service employed 

13 intermittently. 

14 ‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—The Chairman 

15 shall— 

16 ‘‘(i) to the maximum extent prac17 ticable, limit the use of experts and con18 sultants pursuant to subparagraph (A); 

19 and 

20 ‘‘(ii) ensure that the employment con21 tract of each expert and consultant em22 ployed pursuant to subparagraph (A) is 

23 subject to renewal not less frequently than 

24 annually.’’. 

25 (b) REPORTS.— 


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

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

3 thereafter for 10 years, the Chairman of the Federal 

4 Energy Regulatory Commission shall submit to the 

5 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 

6 of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 

7 and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on in8 formation relating to hiring, vacancies, and com9 pensation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com10 mission. 

11 (2) INCLUSIONS.—Each report under para12 graph (1) shall include— 

13 (A) an analysis of any trends with respect 

14 to hiring, vacancies, and compensation at the 

15 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and 

16 (B) a description of the efforts to retain 

17 and attract employees or other personnel re18 sponsible for conducting work of a scientific, 

19 technological, engineering, or mathematical na20 ture at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com21 mission. 

22 (c) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub23 section (a) shall apply beginning on the date that is 30 

24 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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