Federal power agency gets consolidated fund, gains advance-spending authority
S. 1034 — Southwestern Power Administration Fund Establishment Act · Filed by Jerry Moran (R-KS) · 3 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 13, 2025 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill establishes a dedicated fund in the U.S. Treasury for the Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), a federal agency that operates hydroelectric power transmission facilities in the Southwest. The fund consolidates existing SWPA revenue streams—power sales receipts, appropriations, and transfers from older accounts—into one account to pay for operating transmission lines, marketing electricity, building new infrastructure, and administrative costs. Excess funds are returned annually to the Treasury.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to consolidate existing SWPA revenue streams and prior fund balances into a single dedicated Treasury account. It is a technical accounting and administrative reorganization, not a policy change or appropriation.
What the text implies
- The bill grants SWPA the ability to incur obligations in advance of appropriations (section 3(e)), which may allow the agency to commit funds before Congress formally appropriates them—a power typically reserved for wholly owned government corporations and not standard for federal agencies.
- By consolidating three separate prior accounts into one fund with no sunset or review mechanism, the bill removes granular congressional oversight of how SWPA allocates money across operations, maintenance, construction, and administration.
- The annual transfer of 'excess amounts' to the Treasury (section 3(f)) is undefined—no formula or threshold is specified, leaving SWPA discretion over what constitutes 'excess' and when to return funds.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill improves operational continuity and transparency for a federal power agency serving the Southwest, potentially stabilizing electricity supply and rates in that region. However, the bill is primarily a technical accounting reorganization with no direct consumer benefit stated, and the long-term civic impact depends on how SWPA uses the consolidated fund—a question the bill does not address.
Who stands to gain
- Southwestern Power Administration (federal agency)
Named in the bill
Southwestern Power Administration (SWPA), Department of Energy, Secretary of Energy, U.S. Treasury, Flood Control Act of 1944, Energy Policy Act of 2005, Energy and Water Development Appropriations Act, 2005, Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010
Where it stands
3 cosponsors: 3 Republicans.
- Mar 13, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Mar 13, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Mar 17, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water and Power. Hearings held”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $350,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 2 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 41% of bills with at least one filing.
Jerry Moran, the sponsor, reported $396,550 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Public Power Association — $310,000 on 1 filing
- Southwestern Power Resources Association — $40,000 on 2 filings
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (4,452 characters) on Sep 23, 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.
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 2026-10-20.
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