Congress gets yearly reports on dam power plant licenses.
H.R. 3657 — Hydropower Relicensing Transparency Act · Filed by Kim Schrier (D-WA) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced May 29, 2025 · Passed both chambers
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells FERC to send Congress a report each year. The report shows which dam power plant licenses are waiting and what stage they are in. It says when licenses might be approved and what work is needed. FERC must send the first report within 180 days. Then FERC sends one each year after that.
Who it affects
Congress and the public can now see the status of dam power plant licenses. Communities and people who care about dam projects gain access to when things will happen.
One thing to notice
The bill makes FERC report each year so Congress and the public can watch the process.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- May 29, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 29, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce and Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Jun 5, 2025 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Jun 25, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 47 - 0”
- Jul 14, 2025 — Passed the House · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote. (text: CR H3221-3222)”
- Jul 14, 2025 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Latta moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
16 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 22 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $13,028,610 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 38 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 95% of bills with any report.
Kim Schrier, who sponsored the bill, received $938,999 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Edison Electric Institute — $4,248,610 in 2 reports
- Pacific Gas and Electric Company — $3,530,000 in 1 report
- Duke Energy Corporation — $2,280,000 in 1 report
- Puget Sound Energy — $750,000 in 2 reports
- American Electric Power Company, Inc. and Affiliated Corporations — $380,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- FERC — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the agency that approves dam power plant licenses.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (2,860 characters) on Jun 8, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,342 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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