Title: Western Area Power Administration Transparency Act
Policy area: Energy

Summary:
Western Area Power Administration Transparency Act
This bill directs the Western Area Power Administration (WAPA)	to establish a pilot project to provide increased transparency for its customers.
WAPA must publicly display on its website a database of specific information dating back to FY2008, including
Additionally, WAPA must annually update the information it provides on the website. The updates must include specified details regarding changes to the information, the reasons for the changes, and the amount of unobligated balances retained.
The pilot project shall terminate in seven years.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1931 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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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.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 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''.

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--
            (1) establish a pilot project, as part of the continuous 
        process improvement program and to provide increased 
        transparency for customers--
                    (A) to make available a database of information 
                relating to the Western Area Power Administration in 
                accordance with paragraph (2); and
                    (B) to provide annual updates to the database in 
                accordance with subsection (b); and
            (2) publish on a publicly available website of the Western 
        Area Power Administration, a database of the following 
        information, beginning with fiscal year 2008, relating to the 
        Western Area Power Administration:
                    (A) By power system and in a consistent format, 
                rates charged to customers for power and transmission 
                service.
                    (B) By power system, the amount of capacity or 
                energy sold.
                    (C) By region, an accounting, at the task level, 
                budget activity level, organizational code level, and 
                object class level, of all expenditures, including--
                            (i) indirect costs, including overhead 
                        costs;
                            (ii) direct charges and direct allocations;
                            (iii) costs related to contract staff;
                            (iv) costs related to independent 
                        consultants;
                            (v) the number of full-time equivalents;
                            (vi) charges to the region from the 
                        headquarters office of the Western Area Power 
                        Administration for all annual and capital 
                        costs; and
                            (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of other 
                        Federal agencies or programs or third parties 
                        for the administration of programs not related 
                        to the marketing, transmission, or wheeling of 
                        Federal hydropower resources within the Western 
                        Area Power Administration marketing area, 
                        including--
                                    (I) indirect costs, including 
                                overhead costs;
                                    (II) direct charges and 
                                allocations;
                                    (III) costs related to contract 
                                staff; and
                                    (IV) the number of full-time 
                                equivalents.
                    (D) For the headquarters office of the Western Area 
                Power Administration, an accounting, at the task level, 
                budget activity level, organizational code level, and 
                object class level, of all expenditures, including--
                            (i) indirect costs, including overhead 
                        costs;
                            (ii) direct charges and direct allocations;
                            (iii) costs related to contract staff;
                            (iv) costs related to independent 
                        consultants;
                            (v) the number of full-time equivalents;
                            (vi) a summary of any expenditures 
                        described in this paragraph, with the total 
                        amount paid by each region and power system; 
                        and
                            (vii) expenses incurred on behalf of other 
                        Federal agencies or programs or third parties 
                        for the administration of programs not related 
                        to the marketing, transmission, or wheeling of 
                        Federal hydropower resources within the Western 
                        Area Power Administration marketing area, 
                        including--
                                    (I) indirect costs, including 
                                overhead costs;
                                    (II) direct charges and 
                                allocations;
                                    (III) costs related to contract 
                                staff; and
                                    (IV) the number of full-time 
                                equivalents.
                    (E) Capital expenditures for each project, 
                including--
                            (i) capital investments delineated by the 
                        year in which each investment is placed into 
                        service; and
                            (ii) the sources of capital for each 
                        investment.
    (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 information on the 
                website under subsection (a)(2);
                    (B) an identification of the annual changes in the 
                information published on the website under subsection 
                (a)(2);
                    (C) 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 project 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 Administration expects to 
                retain at the end of the fiscal year in which the 
                annual summary is published, as delineated by each of 
                the categories described in clauses (i) through (iv) of 
                subparagraph (D).
            (2) Limitation.--Amounts in the Upper Colorado River Basin 
        Fund established by section 5(a) of the Act of April 11, 1956 
        (commonly known as the ``Colorado River Storage Project Act'') 
        (43 U.S.C. 620d(a)), shall not be considered to be an 
        unobligated balance retained by the Western Area Power 
        Administration for purposes of paragraph (1)(D).
    (c) Termination.--The pilot project under this section shall 
terminate on the date that is 7 years after the date of enactment of 
this Act.
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