Reliability for Ratepayers Act
Latest action. Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Reliability for Ratepayers Act
This bill modifies provisions concerning the hiring and compensation of employees of the Bonneville Power Administration (BPA), which is a nonprofit federal power marketing administration that sells hydropower in the Northwest.
Specifically, it directs BPA to develop and implement a 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.
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 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.
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.
The bill exempts BPA from certain civil service laws when it is carrying out its hiring authority.
Finally, the bill subjects BPA's employees to certain merit system principles.
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Introduced in House" stage on January 15, 2025. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on January 15, 2025: Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 118th Congress (2023-24), 274 of the 16,565 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 1.7 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
Marie Perez (D-WA) introduced it on January 15, 2025, and 7 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 5 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on January 15, 2025, 603 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 603 days ago, on January 15, 2025.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 119th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2027 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers