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Union Calendar No. 510 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 1426 

[Report No. 116–623] 

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 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 

FEBRUARY 28, 2019 

Mr. OLSON (for himself, Mr. MICHAEL F. DOYLE of Pennsylvania, Mr. 

THOMPSON of Mississippi, and Mr. WEBER of Texas) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce 

DECEMBER 8, 2020 

Additional sponsors: Mr. HUDSON, Mr. GONZALEZ of Texas, Mr. HARDER of 

California, Mr. O’HALLERAN, Mr. CRENSHAW, Mr. MCKINLEY, Mr. 

LATTA, Mrs. RODGERS of Washington, Mr. PERRY, Mr. KELLY of Pennsylvania, Mr. BALDERSON, Ms. KENDRA S. HORN of Oklahoma, Mr. 

KEVIN HERN of Oklahoma, Mr. GIBBS, Mr. FLORES, Mrs. LESKO, Mr. 

LAMB, Mr. WRIGHT, Mr. MULLIN, Mr. JOYCE of Pennsylvania, Ms. 

STEFANIK, Mr. MCCAUL, Mr. CURTIS, Mr. FERGUSON, Mr. BYRNE, Mrs. 

FLETCHER, Mr. KINZINGER, Mr. LUJA ́N, Mr. SOTO, Mr. BISHOP of 

North Carolina, Mr. CUELLAR, Mr. KIND, and Mr. TAYLOR

DECEMBER 8, 2020 

Reported from the Committee on Energy and Commerce; committed to the 

Committee of the Whole House on the State of the Union and ordered 

to be printed 


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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. 


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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’’. 

6 SEC. 2. ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF 

7 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE 

8 FEDERAL ENERGY REGULATORY COMMIS9 SION. 

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

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

12 by adding at the end the following: 

13 ‘‘(k) ADDRESSING INSUFFICIENT COMPENSATION OF

14 EMPLOYEES AND OTHER PERSONNEL OF THE COMMIS15 SION.— 

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

17 provision of law, if the Chairman publicly certifies 

18 that compensation for a category of employees or 

19 other personnel of the Commission is insufficient to 

20 retain or attract employees and other personnel to 

21 allow the Commission to carry out the functions of 

22 the Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

23 manner, the Chairman may fix the compensation for 

24 the category of employees or other personnel without 

25 regard to chapter 51 and subchapter III of chapter 


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1 53 of title 5, United States Code, or any other civil 

2 service law. 

3 ‘‘(2) CERTIFICATION REQUIREMENTS.—A cer4 tification issued under paragraph (1) shall— 

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

6 employees or other personnel responsible for 

7 conducting work of a scientific, technological, 

8 engineering, or mathematical nature; 

9 ‘‘(B) specify a maximum amount of rea10 sonable compensation for the category of em11 ployees or other personnel; 

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

13 on the date on which the certification is issued; 

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

15 achieve the objective of retaining or attracting 

16 employees and other personnel to allow the 

17 Commission to carry out the functions of the 

18 Commission in a timely, efficient, and effective 

19 manner; and 

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

21 other approaches available to the Chairman for 

22 retaining and attracting employees and other 

23 personnel are inadequate. 

24 ‘‘(3) RENEWAL.— 


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

2 days before the date of expiration of a certifi3 cation issued under paragraph (1), the Chair4 man shall determine whether the certification 

5 should be renewed for a subsequent 5-year pe6 riod. 

7 ‘‘(B) REQUIREMENT.—If the Chairman de8 termines that a certification should be renewed 

9 under subparagraph (A), the Chairman may 

10 renew the certification, subject to the certifi11 cation requirements under paragraph (2) that 

12 were applicable to the initial certification. 

13 ‘‘(4) NEW HIRES.— 

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

15 personnel that is a member of a category of em16 ployees or other personnel that would have been 

17 covered by a certification issued under para18 graph (1), but was hired during a period in 

19 which the certification has expired and has not 

20 been renewed under paragraph (3) shall not be 

21 eligible for compensation at the level that would 

22 have applied to the employee or other personnel 

23 if the certification had been in effect on the 

24 date on which the employee or other personnel 

25 was hired. 


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1 ‘‘(B) COMPENSATION OF NEW HIRES ON

2 RENEWAL.—On renewal of a certification under 

3 paragraph (3), the Chairman may fix the com4 pensation of the employees or other personnel 

5 described in subparagraph (A) at the level es6 tablished for the category of employees or other 

7 personnel in the certification. 

8 ‘‘(5) RETENTION OF LEVEL OF FIXED COM9 PENSATION.—A category of employees or other per10 sonnel, the compensation of which was fixed by the 

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

12 the discretion of the Chairman, have the level of 

13 fixed compensation for the category of employees or 

14 other personnel retained, regardless of whether a 

15 certification described under that paragraph is in ef16 fect with respect to the compensation of the category 

17 of employees or other personnel. 

18 ‘‘(6) CONSULTATION REQUIRED.—The Chair19 man shall consult with the Director of the Office of 

20 Personnel Management in implementing this sub21 section, including in the determination of the 

22 amount of compensation with respect to each cat23 egory of employees or other personnel. 

24 ‘‘(7) EXPERTS AND CONSULTANTS.— 


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1 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Subject to subpara2 graph (B), the Chairman may— 

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

4 consultants in accordance with section 

5 3109 of title 5, United States Code; 

6 ‘‘(ii) compensate those experts and 

7 consultants for each day (including travel 

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

9 pay for level IV of the Executive Schedule 

10 under section 5315 of that title; and 

11 ‘‘(iii) pay to the experts and consult12 ants serving away from the homes or reg13 ular places of business of the experts and 

14 consultants travel expenses and per diem 

15 in lieu of subsistence at rates authorized 

16 by sections 5702 and 5703 of that title for 

17 persons in Government service employed 

18 intermittently. 

19 ‘‘(B) LIMITATIONS.—The Chairman 

20 shall— 

21 ‘‘(i) to the maximum extent prac22 ticable, limit the use of experts and con23 sultants pursuant to subparagraph (A); 

24 and 


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1 ‘‘(ii) ensure that the employment con2 tract of each expert and consultant em3 ployed pursuant to subparagraph (A) is 

4 subject to renewal not less frequently than 

5 annually.’’. 

6 (b) REPORTS.— 

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

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

9 thereafter for 10 years, the Chairman of the Federal 

10 Energy Regulatory Commission shall submit to the 

11 Committee on Energy and Commerce of the House 

12 of Representatives and the Committee on Energy 

13 and Natural Resources of the Senate a report on in14 formation relating to hiring, vacancies, and com15 pensation at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com16 mission. 

17 (2) INCLUSIONS.—Each report under para18 graph (1) shall include— 

19 (A) an analysis of any trends with respect 

20 to hiring, vacancies, and compensation at the 

21 Federal Energy Regulatory Commission; and 

22 (B) a description of the efforts to retain 

23 and attract employees or other personnel re24 sponsible for conducting work of a scientific, 

25 technological, engineering, or mathematical naVerDate Sep 11 2014 20:29 Dec 09, 2020 Jkt 019200 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H1426.RH H1426

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1 ture at the Federal Energy Regulatory Com2 mission. 

3 (c) APPLICABILITY.—The amendment made by sub4 section (a) shall apply beginning on the date that is 30 

5 days after the date of enactment of this Act. 


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Union Calendar No. 510 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 1426 

[Report No. 116–623] 

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 emDECEMBER 8, 2020 

Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the 

State of the Union and ordered to be printed 


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