Bill stops power company bosses from getting big pay raises.
S. 5353 — No Bonuses for Utility Executives Act · Filed by Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Aug 6, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
The bill says power companies cannot pay bonuses to top leaders. This rule applies if bills went up faster than inflation that year. Any bonus must not be more than 25% of what regular workers earn. A government agency called FERC must approve bonuses before they are paid. If a power company breaks these rules, the bonus money goes to the U.S. Treasury and customers get refunds.
Who it affects
People who pay power bills benefit when the bill stops big rate hikes. Power company leaders would face limits on bonus pay. FERC would have to review and approve bonuses.
One thing to notice
The bill only covers some power companies, so city-owned ones may not be included. Power companies might pay leaders in other ways the bill does not cover.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Aug 6, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Aug 6, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Words to know
- inflation — When prices for things go up over time, so money buys less.
- FERC — The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, an agency that oversees power companies.
- bonus — Extra money paid to a worker on top of regular pay.
- Treasury — The part of the U.S. government that handles money.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,042 characters) on Aug 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,206 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 2026-09-17.
“Bill stops power company bosses from getting big pay raises.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s5353/simple Report an error