<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><BillSummaries>
    <item congress="119" measure-type="hr" measure-number="447" measure-id="id119hr447" originChamber="HOUSE" orig-publish-date="2025-01-15" update-date="2025-04-18">
        <title>Reliability for Ratepayers Act</title>
        <summary summary-id="id119hr447v00" currentChamber="HOUSE" update-date="2025-04-18">
            <action-date>2025-01-15</action-date>
            <action-desc>Introduced in House</action-desc>
            <summary-text><![CDATA[<p><strong>Reliability for Ratepayers Act</strong></p><p>This bill modifies provisions concerning the hiring and compensation of employees of the&nbsp;Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which is a nonprofit federal power marketing&nbsp;administration that sells hydropower in the Northwest.</p><p>Specifically, it directs BPA&nbsp;to develop and implement a&nbsp;plan that specifies and fixes the compensation for its employees, including members of the Senior Executive Service. Within a year, BPA must develop an initial compensation plan, which must be approved by the Department of Energy. BPA must implement the plan no later than one year after the plan is developed. </p><p>The compensation plan must be based on an annual survey of the prevailing compensation for similar positions in the public sectors of the electric industry, provide compensation that is competitive with&nbsp;similar positions among consumer-owned utilities in the Western Interconnection, be consistent with BPA's approved annual general and administrative budget, and meet other criteria as outlined in the bill.&nbsp;</p><p>BPA must (1) annually review the compensation plan and make any updates as appropriate, and (2) publish the plan and any updates made to the plan.</p><p>The bill exempts&nbsp;BPA&nbsp;from certain civil service laws when it is carrying out its hiring authority.</p><p>Finally, the bill subjects BPA's employees&nbsp;to certain merit system principles.</p>]]></summary-text>
        </summary>
    </item>
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        <dc:language>EN</dc:language>
        <dc:rights>Pursuant to Title 17 Section 105 of the United States Code, this file is not subject to copyright protection and is in the public domain.</dc:rights>
        <dc:contributor>Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress</dc:contributor>
        <dc:description>This file contains bill summaries for federal legislation. A bill summary describes the most significant provisions of a piece of legislation and details the effects the legislative text may have on current law and federal programs. Bill summaries are authored by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) of the Library of Congress. As stated in Public Law 91-510 (2 USC 166 (d)(6)), one of the duties of CRS is "to prepare summaries and digests of bills and resolutions of a public general nature introduced in the Senate or House of Representatives". For more information, refer to the User Guide that accompanies this file.</dc:description>
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</BillSummaries>
