NRC leader can raise pay for top staff without approval.
H.R. 9614 — NRC Staff Pay Alignment Act · Filed by Robert Menendez (D-NJ) · Introduced Jul 9, 2026 · Markup held
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill lets the NRC Chairman set pay for senior staff. Pay can go up to 110% of the highest level. The bill covers all senior staff, even those hired long ago. It also changes rules about checking if staff earned raises.
Who it affects
NRC senior staff would get higher pay. The NRC Chairman would have power to decide their pay alone.
One thing to notice
The Chairman can raise pay for past and current staff. No one has to ask Congress or explain each raise.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Jul 9, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Jul 9, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Jul 14, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $660,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 66 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Robert Menendez, who sponsored the bill, received $764,699 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Americans for Prosperity — $660,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- NRC — The government agency that makes sure nuclear power plants are safe.
- Chairman — The leader of the NRC who makes key decisions.
- 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 (2,165 characters) on Aug 12, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,522 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 Jun 2026 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 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-22.
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