[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 1020-1021]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 FAIR RATEPAYER ACCOUNTABILITY, TRANSPARENCY, AND EFFICIENCY STANDARDS 
                                  ACT

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill 
(H.R. 587) to amend the Federal Power Act to provide that any inaction 
by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that allows a rate change 
to go into effect shall be treated as an order by the Commission for 
purposes of rehearing and court review.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 587

       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 ``Fair Ratepayer 
     Accountability, Transparency, and Efficiency Standards Act'' 
     or the ``Fair RATES Act''.

     SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE FEDERAL POWER ACT.

       Subsection (d) of section 205 of the Federal Power Act (16 
     U.S.C. 824d(d)) is amended by adding at the end the 
     following: ``Any absence of action by the Commission that 
     allows a change to take effect under this section, including 
     the Commission allowing the sixty days' notice herein 
     provided to expire without Commission action, shall be 
     treated as an order issued by the Commission accepting such 
     change for purposes of section 313.''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Upton) and the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Kennedy) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.


                             General Leave

  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
insert extraneous materials in the Record on the bill.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Michigan?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, as I complimented Mr. Welch, I want to thank Mr. Kennedy 
for his leadership on this bill. I would note that we passed this bill 
through regular order again in the last Congress, passed with 
bipartisan support. It is appropriate that we bring it up early this 
year. Again, this is another bipartisan bill. We must allow the public 
to have administrative process relief in those cases where FERC does 
not actually issue an order, and this legislation will do just that. I 
urge passage of the bill.
  The Federal Power Act sets forth processes to set rates for 
electricity, including opportunities for the public to protest a rate 
change filed with FERC. New rates take effect if FERC approves them or 
if FERC fails to issue an order approving or denying the filed rate 
within 60 days.
  The failure to approve or deny a rate may result from agency delay 
or, in some limited cases, from a vote that results in a deadlocked 
Commission, for example, a 2-2 vote. In such cases, the rates become 
effective by operation of law, even when these rates were not approved 
by a majority of Commissioners.
  The Federal Power Act, of course, provides administrative redress for 
members of the public to protest Commission rate decisions. However, if 
these rates become effective by operation of law, for example, that 2-2 
deadlock, the administrative processes are not available to the public 
because FERC did not actually issue an order for the public to protest. 
The public literally gets shut out.
  I don't want to speak for the gentleman from Massachusetts, but I 
think some of his constituents recently experienced this firsthand. As 
a result of that and of the hard work by Mr. Kennedy and of his staff 
and certainly of the committee staff on both sides of the aisle, the 
legislation was drafted. We considered it in committee during the 114th 
Congress, where it passed on a voice vote. We have it on the floor 
today.
  I urge all Members to support this legislation.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. KENNEDY. I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank you for allowing me to discuss the Fair 
RATES Act, H.R. 587, and for bringing it to the floor today for a vote. 
I also want to thank the subcommittee chairman, Mr. Upton, his staff, 
and, of course, during his tenure as chairman of the full committee, 
his staff, along with the staff of Mr. Pallone and the chairman and 
ranking member of the subcommittees.
  We have worked on this legislation for now several years. It did pass 
unanimously, as Chairman Upton indicated, on a bipartisan passage last 
year. I am grateful for his acknowledgment of that effort between our 
teams and that it is on the floor so early in this Congress.
  Because many of my colleagues have heard me speak about this at 
length and patiently listened as I dove too far into the weeds about 
forward capacity auctions, I am hoping to keep this part short and am 
happy to answer any questions that anyone may have. As the chairman 
alluded to, New England holds an energy capacity auction to ensure that 
we have sufficient energy supply to meet consumer demand.
  Mr. Speaker, 3 years ago, during an auction where there was a 
shortfall, those capacity payments tripled, skyrocketing from about $1 
billion to $3 billion. That rate increase hasn't even reached our 
constituents yet, but this June, a significant portion of their bills 
will triple due to that auction.
  When the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission reviewed that rate 
increase, they were down to four Commissioners, and they deadlocked 2-
2. One Democratic Commissioner and one Republican Commissioner raised 
concerns about whether those rates were just and reasonable for 
consumers. Because of the deadlock, those rates took effect by 
operation of law without any action from FERC. With no official 
decision from the agency, there was no

[[Page 1021]]

decision to appeal, leaving my constituents completely voiceless.
  Mr. Speaker, in 2 weeks, our region will hold that same annual 
auction, once again determining rates that will be passed along to 
families and businesses in my district 3 years down the road. Once 
again, FERC is understaffed, without a full complement of Commissioners 
to consider the new rate filings.
  Although the situation may sound complex and unique to New England, 
there is not a corner of this country that is immune from the 
unpredictability of American energy markets and the resulting burden 
our consumers and businesses are forced to bear as a result. That is 
why I urge my colleagues to pass this bill and enact a simple fix to a 
very complex problem.
  Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from 
Georgia (Mr. Carter), a new member of the committee but an old hand in 
Congress.

                              {time}  1545

  Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for 
yielding.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 587, the Fair RATES Act.
  This bill would amend the Federal Power Act so that those who are 
adversely affected by inaction of the Federal Energy Regulatory 
Commission on utility rate changes will have the right to a rehearing. 
Under current law, a court challenge to a FERC order may only be 
brought about petitioning the Commission for a rehearing.
  But if the panel is deadlocked and no order is issued by FERC on a 
utility rate increase, affected parties cannot bring an action because 
there was no final order. Meanwhile, the utility rate increase moves 
forward without the ability of affected parties to be heard.
  Under the Fair RATES Act, FERC's inaction on a utility's notice of a 
rate increase within 60 days will be treated as an order accepting the 
change. Affected parties will then be able to petition for a rehearing 
on the utility rate change.
  This bill will ensure that consumers and other affected parties are 
able to have their concerns heard by Federal regulators. The Fair RATES 
Act will hold Federal regulators accountable to ensure utility rate 
increases are reasonable by increasing transparency in the process.
  I urge my colleagues to support this bill.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for his comment.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman 
from Colorado (Ms. DeGette).
  Ms. DeGETTE. Mr. Speaker, I want to echo my support for this 
important piece of legislation.
  This bill was passed last year on a bipartisan basis on a voice vote, 
in fact, but it was never taken up in the other body. This is becoming 
kind of a theme today. But, as Mr. Kennedy pointed out, if we can't 
move this through Congress in the next few weeks, families and small 
businesses may be left with electric bills that they cannot afford. So 
what we are really doing today is we are cleaning up some of the 
leftover important legislation from the last Congress that really needs 
to pass.
  Mr. Upton and I worked hard, along with Mr. Kennedy and Mr. Welch and 
many other Members, on the 21st Century Cures bill last Congress. It 
was one of the last bills we passed on a bipartisan basis. I am happy 
that the Energy and Commerce Committee is getting a running start today 
in passing some of our key bipartisan legislation from last Congress, 
and I am hoping that this will be a bellwether for the rest of this 
Congress that we will continue in the grand tradition of the Energy and 
Commerce Committee.
  I urge my colleagues to support this important legislation. And I 
hope that the Senate will work quickly so that we can send this 
important bill to the President's desk and we can stop those 
unanticipated rate increases.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I will stand on the remarks I have already made, and I urge quick 
passage of the legislation.
  I, again, want to extend my gratitude and thanks to Chairman Upton 
and his team for all of their work, both last Congress and this one.
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Mr. UPTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  I would just like to reference the kind remarks by my friend, the 
gentlewoman from Colorado. This is the start of the next Congress. We 
are certainly looking forward to governing in a bipartisan way. That is 
what our committee has done for hundreds of bills in the last number of 
years. I look forward to that continued partnership. I know Chairman 
Walden on the full committee looks forward to doing that as well.
  This is just the first step, literally one of the first days, 
obviously, in the new Trump administration, but we look forward to 
working with the Senate to get this bill to the new administration and 
get it signed into law, showing, again, the bipartisan support.
  I want to compliment my friend, my colleague from Massachusetts (Mr. 
Kennedy), for his good work on this. I urge my colleagues to vote 
``yes.''
  I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. JACKSON LEE. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 587, the 
``Fair Ratepayer Accountability, Transparency, and Efficiency Standards 
Act'' (Fair RATES Act), which amends the Federal Power Act to permit 
administrative and judicial review of any rate change filed by a public 
utility that takes effect without the approval of the Federal Energy 
Regulatory Commission (FERC).
  The need for this change became evident in the wake of a New England 
Forward Capacity Market Auction in 2014, which occurred at a time when 
FERC only had 4 Commissioners.
  When the New England Forward Capacity Market Auction issue was 
addressed by FERC, the Commissioners split evenly over the question of 
whether the auction results were just and reasonable.
  Since FERC did not disapprove the auction results, wholesale 
electricity prices in New England increased dramatically; and
  So, while rates went up, none of the affected parties could challenge 
the decision or resulting rate increase, and, therefore, no rehearing 
or judicial review was possible.
  H.R. 587 provides those who want to challenge similar rulings or non-
decisions by FERC the ability to challenge the decision 
administratively or in the courts.
  The bill ensures that stakeholders have recourse when a non-decision 
by FERC has very real consequences for consumers, producers and others.
  This bill would also improve the process by which FERC votes are 
reconsidered.
  I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting H.R. 587.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) that the House suspend the rules 
and pass the bill, H.R. 587.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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