Utility executives lose bonuses if rates outpace inflation; customers get refunds.
H.R. 6590 — No Bonuses for Utility Executives Act · Filed by Josh Riley (D-NY) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Dec 10, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill prohibits executives at certain electric utilities from receiving bonuses unless customer rates rise no faster than inflation (CPI-U). Any bonus paid must not exceed 25% of the median non-executive employee salary. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission oversees compliance, and utilities that violate the rule must forfeit bonuses—which are then distributed as payments to the utility's customers. The rule applies only to state-regulated utilities not wholly owned by U.S. persons.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a direct cap on executive bonuses at utilities, conditioned on rate discipline and tied to customer refunds. It is a compensation-control measure, not a subsidy, tax carve-out, or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The rule applies only to utilities 'not wholly owned by United States persons'—a foreign-ownership trigger that may exclude many large utilities and narrow the bill's practical scope significantly.
- Forfeited bonuses are distributed equally to all customers, not proportionally to those harmed by rate increases, which may create windfalls for low-usage customers and minimal relief for high-usage households.
- The 25% cap on bonuses is pegged to median non-executive pay, which may incentivize utilities to suppress non-executive wages to reduce the allowable bonus pool.
- FERC and IRS joint oversight creates potential coordination gaps; no explicit penalty for utilities that fail to report or misreport rate increases and employee compensation.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Utility customers gain direct refunds when executives receive unauthorized bonuses, and the rule ties executive compensation to rate discipline, creating an incentive to hold customer costs down. Executives are restrained, not citizens.
Who stands to gain
- utility customers (direct refunds from forfeited bonuses)
- state-regulated utilities (incentive to control rates to preserve executive bonus eligibility)
Named in the bill
Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Bureau of Labor Statistics, State-regulated electric utilities, C-suite executives
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 2 Republicans, 1 Democrats.
- Dec 10, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Dec 10, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Ways and Means and House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce, and in addition to the Committee on Ways and Means, for a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (3,596 characters) on Oct 3, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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.
As of — page rendered 2026-10-20.
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