II 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1931 

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 SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 20, 2019 

Ms. MCSALLY (for herself and Ms. SINEMA) introduced the following bill; 

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 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— 

7 (1) establish a pilot project, as part of the con8 tinuous process improvement program and to pro9 vide increased transparency for customers— 

10 (A) to make available a database of infor11 mation relating to the Western Area Power Ad12 ministration in accordance with paragraph (2); 

13 and 

14 (B) to provide annual updates to the data15 base in accordance with subsection (b); and 

16 (2) publish on a publicly available website of 

17 the Western Area Power Administration, a database 

18 of the following information, beginning with fiscal 

19 year 2008, relating to the Western Area Power Ad20 ministration: 

21 (A) By power system and in a consistent 

22 format, rates charged to customers for power 

23 and transmission service. 

24 (B) By power system, the amount of ca25 pacity or energy sold. 


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1 (C) By region, an accounting, at the task 

2 level, budget activity level, organizational code 

3 level, and object class level, of all expenditures, 

4 including— 

5 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 

6 costs; 

7 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca8 tions; 

9 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 

10 (iv) costs related to independent con11 sultants; 

12 (v) the number of full-time equiva13 lents; 

14 (vi) charges to the region from the 

15 headquarters office of the Western Area 

16 Power Administration for all annual and 

17 capital costs; and 

18 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 

19 other Federal agencies or programs or 

20 third parties for the administration of pro21 grams not related to the marketing, trans22 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro23 power resources within the Western Area 

24 Power Administration marketing area, in25 cluding— 


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1 (I) indirect costs, including over2 head costs; 

3 (II) direct charges and alloca4 tions; 

5 (III) costs related to contract 

6 staff; and 

7 (IV) the number of full-time 

8 equivalents. 

9 (D) For the headquarters office of the 

10 Western Area Power Administration, an ac11 counting, at the task level, budget activity level, 

12 organizational code level, and object class level, 

13 of all expenditures, including— 

14 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 

15 costs; 

16 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca17 tions; 

18 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 

19 (iv) costs related to independent con20 sultants; 

21 (v) the number of full-time equiva22 lents; 

23 (vi) a summary of any expenditures 

24 described in this paragraph, with the total 


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1 amount paid by each region and power sys2 tem; and 

3 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 

4 other Federal agencies or programs or 

5 third parties for the administration of pro6 grams not related to the marketing, trans7 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro8 power resources within the Western Area 

9 Power Administration marketing area, in10 cluding— 

11 (I) indirect costs, including over12 head costs; 

13 (II) direct charges and alloca14 tions; 

15 (III) costs related to contract 

16 staff; and 

17 (IV) the number of full-time 

18 equivalents. 

19 (E) Capital expenditures for each project, 

20 including— 

21 (i) capital investments delineated by 

22 the year in which each investment is placed 

23 into service; and 

24 (ii) the sources of capital for each in25 vestment. 


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1 (b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 

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

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

4 project is being carried out under this section, the 

5 Administrator shall make available on a publicly 

6 available website— 

7 (A) updates to documents made available 

8 on the date of the initial publication of the in9 formation on the website under subsection 

10 (a)(2); 

11 (B) an identification of the annual changes 

12 in the information published on the website 

13 under subsection (a)(2); 

14 (C) the reasons for the changes identified 

15 under subparagraph (B); 

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

17 amount of the unobligated balances retained by 

18 the Western Area Power Administration at the 

19 end of the prior fiscal year within each project 

20 and headquarters by— 

21 (i) purpose or function; 

22 (ii) source of funding; 

23 (iii) anticipated program allotment; 

24 and 


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1 (iv) underlying authority for each 

2 source of funding; and 

3 (E) the anticipated level of unobligated 

4 balances that the Western Area Power Adminis5 tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 

6 year in which the annual summary is published, 

7 as delineated by each of the categories de8 scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara9 graph (D). 

10 (2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo11 rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 

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

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

14 U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not be considered to be an 

15 unobligated balance retained by the Western Area 

16 Power Administration for purposes of paragraph 

17 (1)(D). 

18 (c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec19 tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 

20 date of enactment of this Act. 

Æ 


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