II 

Calendar No. 262 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1931 

[Report No. 116–142] 

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 

OCTOBER 23, 2019 

Reported by Ms. MURKOWSKI, without amendment 

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, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Western Area Power 

3 Administration Transparency Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION PILOT 

5 PROJECT. 

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

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

8 Western Area Power Administration (referred to in this 

9 section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall— 

10 (1) establish a pilot project, as part of the con11 tinuous process improvement program and to pro12 vide increased transparency for customers— 

13 (A) to make available a database of infor14 mation relating to the Western Area Power Ad15 ministration in accordance with paragraph (2); 

16 and 

17 (B) to provide annual updates to the data18 base in accordance with subsection (b); and 

19 (2) publish on a publicly available website of 

20 the Western Area Power Administration, a database 

21 of the following information, beginning with fiscal 

22 year 2008, relating to the Western Area Power Ad23 ministration: 

24 (A) By power system and in a consistent 

25 format, rates charged to customers for power 

26 and transmission service. 


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1 (B) By power system, the amount of ca2 pacity or energy sold. 

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

4 level, budget activity level, organizational code 

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

6 including— 

7 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 

8 costs; 

9 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca10 tions; 

11 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 

12 (iv) costs related to independent con13 sultants; 

14 (v) the number of full-time equiva15 lents; 

16 (vi) charges to the region from the 

17 headquarters office of the Western Area 

18 Power Administration for all annual and 

19 capital costs; and 

20 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 

21 other Federal agencies or programs or 

22 third parties for the administration of pro23 grams not related to the marketing, trans24 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro25 power resources within the Western Area 


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1 Power Administration marketing area, in2 cluding— 

3 (I) indirect costs, including over4 head costs; 

5 (II) direct charges and alloca6 tions; 

7 (III) costs related to contract 

8 staff; and 

9 (IV) the number of full-time 

10 equivalents. 

11 (D) For the headquarters office of the 

12 Western Area Power Administration, an ac13 counting, at the task level, budget activity level, 

14 organizational code level, and object class level, 

15 of all expenditures, including— 

16 (i) indirect costs, including overhead 

17 costs; 

18 (ii) direct charges and direct alloca19 tions; 

20 (iii) costs related to contract staff; 

21 (iv) costs related to independent con22 sultants; 

23 (v) the number of full-time equiva24 lents; 


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1 (vi) a summary of any expenditures 

2 described in this paragraph, with the total 

3 amount paid by each region and power sys4 tem; and 

5 (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of 

6 other Federal agencies or programs or 

7 third parties for the administration of pro8 grams not related to the marketing, trans9 mission, or wheeling of Federal hydro10 power resources within the Western Area 

11 Power Administration marketing area, in12 cluding— 

13 (I) indirect costs, including over14 head costs; 

15 (II) direct charges and alloca16 tions; 

17 (III) costs related to contract 

18 staff; and 

19 (IV) the number of full-time 

20 equivalents. 

21 (E) Capital expenditures for each project, 

22 including— 

23 (i) capital investments delineated by 

24 the year in which each investment is placed 

25 into service; and 


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1 (ii) the sources of capital for each in2 vestment. 

3 (b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 

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

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

6 project is being carried out under this section, the 

7 Administrator shall make available on a publicly 

8 available website— 

9 (A) updates to documents made available 

10 on the date of the initial publication of the in11 formation on the website under subsection 

12 (a)(2); 

13 (B) an identification of the annual changes 

14 in the information published on the website 

15 under subsection (a)(2); 

16 (C) the reasons for the changes identified 

17 under subparagraph (B); 

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

19 amount of the unobligated balances retained by 

20 the Western Area Power Administration at the 

21 end of the prior fiscal year within each project 

22 and headquarters by— 

23 (i) purpose or function; 

24 (ii) source of funding; 


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1 (iii) anticipated program allotment; 

2 and 

3 (iv) underlying authority for each 

4 source of funding; and 

5 (E) the anticipated level of unobligated 

6 balances that the Western Area Power Adminis7 tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 

8 year in which the annual summary is published, 

9 as delineated by each of the categories de10 scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara11 graph (D). 

12 (2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo13 rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 

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

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

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

17 unobligated balance retained by the Western Area 

18 Power Administration for purposes of paragraph 

19 (1)(D). 

20 (c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec21 tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 

22 date of enactment of this Act. 


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Calendar No. 262 

116TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1931 

[Report No. 116–142] 

A BILL 

To require the Administrator of the Western Area 

and for other purposes. to provide increased transparency for customers, Power Administration to establish a pilot project 

OCTOBER 23, 2019 

Reported without amendment 


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