I 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION H. R. 4444 

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. 

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 referred to the Committee on Natural Resources 

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. 

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 ‘‘Western Area Power 

5 Administration Transparency Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION PILOT 

2 PROJECT. 

3 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 

4 date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 

5 Western Area Power Administration (referred to in this 

6 section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall establish a pilot 

7 project, as part of the continuous process improvement 

8 program and to provide increased transparency for cus9 tomers, to publish on a publicly available website of the 

10 Western Area Power Administration, a database of the fol11 lowing information, beginning with fiscal year 2008, relat12 ing to the Western Area Power Administration: 

13 (1) By power system and in a consistent for14 mat, rates charged to customers for power and 

15 transmission service. 

16 (2) By power system, the amount of capacity or 

17 energy sold. 

18 (3) By region, a detailed accounting, at the 

19 functional level and the budget activity level, of all 

20 expenditures, capital costs, and staffing costs, in21 cluding— 

22 (A) indirect costs, including overhead 

23 costs; 

24 (B) direct charges and direct allocations; 

25 (C) the number of contract staff; 


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1 (D) costs related to independent consult2 ants; 

3 (E) the number of full-time equivalents; 

4 and 

5 (F) charges to the region from the head6 quarters office of the Western Area Power Ad7 ministration for all annual and capital costs. 

8 (4) For the headquarters office of the Western 

9 Area Power Administration, a detailed accounting at 

10 the functional level and the budget activity level, of 

11 all expenditures and capital costs, including— 

12 (A) indirect costs, including overhead 

13 costs; 

14 (B) direct charges and direct allocations; 

15 (C) the number of contract staff; 

16 (D) costs related to independent consult17 ants; 

18 (E) the number of full-time equivalents; 

19 (F) a summary of any expenditures de20 scribed in this paragraph, with the total 

21 amount paid by each region and power system; 

22 and 

23 (G) expenses incurred on behalf of other 

24 Federal agencies or programs or third parties 

25 for the administration of programs not related 


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1 to the marketing, transmission, or wheeling of 

2 Federal hydropower resources, including— 

3 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 

4 costs; 

5 (ii) direct charges and allocations; 

6 (iii) the number of contract staff; and 

7 (iv) the number of full-time equiva8 lents. 

9 (5) Capital expenditures, including— 

10 (A) capital investments delineated by the 

11 year in which each investment is placed into 

12 service; and 

13 (B) the sources of capital for each invest14 ment. 

15 (b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 

16 (1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 

17 after the end of each fiscal year in which the pilot 

18 project is being carried out under this section, the 

19 Administrator shall make available on a publicly 

20 available website— 

21 (A) updates to documents made available 

22 on the date of the initial publication of the in23 formation on the website under subsection (a); 


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1 (B) an identification of the magnitude of 

2 annual changes in the information published on 

3 the website under subsection (a); 

4 (C) a description of the reasons for the 

5 changes identified under subparagraph (B); 

6 (D) subject to paragraph (2), the total 

7 amount of the unobligated balances retained by 

8 the Western Area Power Administration at the 

9 end of the prior fiscal year within each mar10 keting area and headquarters by— 

11 (i) purpose or function; 

12 (ii) source of funding; 

13 (iii) anticipated program allotment; 

14 and 

15 (iv) underlying authority for each 

16 source of funding; and 

17 (E) the anticipated level of unobligated 

18 balances that the Western Area Power Adminis19 tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 

20 year in which the annual summary is published, 

21 as delineated by each of the categories de22 scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara23 graph (D). 

24 (2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo25 rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 


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1 of the Act of April 11, 1956 (commonly known as 

2 the ‘‘Colorado River Storage Project Act’’) (43 

3 U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not considered to be an unob4 ligated balance retained by the Western Area Power 

5 Administration for purposes of paragraph (1)(D). 

6 (c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec7 tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 

8 date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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