I 
115TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION H. R. 2371 
To require the Administrator of the Western Area Power Administration 
to establish a pilot project to provide increased transparency for cus-
tomers, and for other purposes. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MAY 4, 2017 
Mr. GOSAR (for himself, Ms. SINEMA, Mr. BIGGS, Mr. FRANKS of Arizona, 
Mr. HUFFMAN, Mr. LAMALFA, Ms. MCSALLY, Mrs. NOEM, Mr. 
O’HALLERAN, Mr. SCHWEIKERT, and Mr. MCCLINTOCK) 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 pur-
poses. 
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Western Area Power 
Administration Transparency Act’’. 
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SEC. 2. WESTERN AREA POWER ADMINISTRATION PILOT 
PROJECT. 
(a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days after the 
date of enactment of this Act, the Administrator of the 
Western Area Power Administration (referred to in this 
section as the ‘‘Administrator’’) shall establish a pilot 
project, as part of the continuous process improvement 
program and to provide increased transparency for cus-
tomers, to publish on a publicly available website of the 
Western Area Power Administration, a database of the fol-
lowing information, beginning with fiscal year 2008, relat-
ing to the Western Area Power Administration: 
(1) By power system and in a consistent for-
mat, rates charged to customers for power and 
transmission service. 
(2) By power system, the amount of capacity or 
energy sold. 
(3) By region, a detailed accounting, at the 
functional level and the budget activity level, of all 
expenditures, capital costs, and staffing costs, in-
cluding— 
(A) indirect costs, including overhead 
costs; 
(B) direct charges and direct allocations; 
(C) the number of contract staff; 
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(D) costs related to independent consult-
ants; 
(E) the number of full-time equivalents; 
and 
(F) charges to the region from the head-
quarters office of the Western Area Power Ad-
ministration for all annual and capital costs. 
(4) For the headquarters office of the Western 
Area Power Administration, a detailed accounting at 
the functional level and the budget activity level, of 
all expenditures and capital costs, including— 
(A) indirect costs, including overhead 
costs; 
(B) direct charges and direct allocations; 
(C) the number of contract staff; 
(D) costs related to independent consult-
ants; 
(E) the number of full-time equivalents; 
(F) a summary of any expenditures de-
scribed in this paragraph, with the total 
amount paid by each region and power system; 
and 
(G) expenses incurred on behalf of other 
Federal agencies or programs or third parties 
for the administration of programs not related 
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to the marketing, transmission, or wheeling of 
Federal hydropower resources, including— 
(i) indirect costs, including overhead 
costs; 
(ii) direct charges and allocations; 
(iii) the number of contract staff; and 
(iv) the number of full-time equiva-
lents. 
(5) Capital expenditures, including— 
(A) capital investments delineated by the 
year in which each investment is placed into 
service; and 
(B) the sources of capital for each invest-
ment. 
(b) ANNUAL SUMMARY.— 
(1) IN
GENERAL.—Not later than 120 days 
after the end of each fiscal year in which the pilot 
project is being carried out under this section, the 
Administrator shall make available on a publicly 
available website— 
(A) updates to documents made available 
on the date of the initial publication of the in-
formation on the website under subsection (a); 
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(B) an identification of the magnitude of 
annual changes in the information published on 
the website under subsection (a); 
(C) a description of the reasons for the 
changes identified under subparagraph (B); 
(D) subject to paragraph (2), the total 
amount of the unobligated balances retained by 
the Western Area Power Administration at the 
end of the prior fiscal year within each mar-
keting area and headquarters by— 
(i) purpose or function; 
(ii) source of funding; 
(iii) anticipated program allotment; 
and 
(iv) underlying authority for each 
source of funding; and 
(E) the anticipated level of unobligated 
balances that the Western Area Power Adminis-
tration expects to retain at the end of the fiscal 
year in which the annual summary is published, 
as delineated by each of the categories de-
scribed in clauses (i) through (iv) of subpara-
graph (D). 
(2) LIMITATION.—Amounts in the Upper Colo-
rado River Basin Fund established by section 5(a) 
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of the Act of April 11, 1956 (commonly known as 
the ‘‘Colorado River Storage Project Act’’) (43 
U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not considered to be an unob-
ligated balance retained by the Western Area Power 
Administration for purposes of paragraph (1)(D). 
(c) TERMINATION.—The pilot project under this sec-
tion shall terminate on the date that is 7 years after the 
date of enactment of this Act. 
Æ 
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