Tennessee Valley Authority headquarters and TVA logoAlexander: Selling TVA could cost taxpayersU.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., says an idea floated in the Obama administration's new budget of reforming - even selling - TVA is "one more bad idea in a budget full of bad ideas.""There is today no federal taxpayer subsidy for TVA, period. There is by law no federal taxpayer liability for TVA debt. And after deducting its debt, selling TVA would probably cost taxpayers money." Alexander said Wednesday in a prepared statement.- Pam SohnRead more in Thursday's Chattanooga Times Free Press.
WASHINGTON - President Obama may want to rid the federal government of TVA.
The president's fiscal 2014 budget request, released today, includes a section called "Reform TVA." It describes in detail the Tennessee Valley Authority's "impact to the federal deficit."
"Reducing or eliminating the federal government's role in programs such as TVA, which have achieved their original objectives and no longer require federal participation, can help put the nation on a sustainable fiscal path," reads the passage.
Mentioning TVA's debt constraints, the administration appears poised to undertake a thorough review of the federally owned utility's finances.
That includes "the possible divestiture of TVA, in part or as a whole," according to the budget.
The president's budget request often is treated as a wish list to Congress, but it sets financial guidelines for the administration's policy goals.
For complete details, see tomorrow's Chattanooga Times Free Press.