President Donald Trump signed a memorandum directing the Tennessee Valley Authority board of directors to place a compensation limit of $500,000 on all employees, including the CEO.
Trump instructed the board to place the limit if it’s consistent with the results of the federal utility’s annual compensation survey, which it uses to benchmark pay for executives and other employees.
The memo was particularly directed at the CEO, who holds the highest paid role in the U.S. government. Trump last month promised to make the CEO’s life miserable, declaring at an event celebrating coal that TVA had gone in “a very stupid, very bad direction.”
The limit would include not just salary but also other incentives and benefits TVA adds, particularly for executives.
“President Trump is ending excessive executive pay at the TVA, where CEOs have received millions in compensation, far exceeding salaries paid elsewhere in the federal government,” the White House said in a fact sheet on the memo. “The TVA, as a wholly owned corporate agency of the federal government, must steward public resources responsibly. Multimillion-dollar CEO packages undermine that duty and public trust.”