Dear Chairwoman Capito, Ranking Member Whitehouse, and members of the Committee:
On behalf of the AFL-CIO, I am writing to share our serious concerns about the possibility of privatization of the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) and any threats to the contracts of the union members who build, maintain, and operate the TVA’s systems and infrastructure. Through its public status, the TVA plays a critical role in driving economic development and serving the people of the Tennessee Valley.
Privatizing the TVA would undermine its proud history of economic development and stewardship over the Tennessee Valley’s waterways and public lands and the utility’s critical role powering the region with reliable energy at the lowest cost possible. The institution’s not-for-profit public power model, enshrined in the TVA Act of 1933, empowers the Authority to prioritize the public good in its land and river management, power generation, and labor-management relationships. If privatized, the utility would be forced to prioritize corporate profit over the provision of affordable power to its 10 million customers, respect for workers’ rights, or broader community and industrial development.
We fully support the TVA’s ambitious plans of adding gigawatts of power generation capacity to the current diverse mix of energy generation, storage, efficiency, and demand response technologies. We are eager to see the next generation of nuclear power deployed in the Tennessee Valley as the TVA and this committee look to sustainably meet rising energy demands and avoid the painful rate hikes that customers have experienced across the country.
We were pleased to see the most recent TVA Board of Director nominees commit to not privatizing the TVA in their testimony before your committee on October 22, 2025. We ask that you hold the TVA board to this commitment and continue to thoroughly vet all future nominees to ensure that they will not privatize the TVA, sell off major assets, or undermine the TVA union contracts.
Thank you for consideration of this matter and we look forward to working with you to protect our workers and power our nation.
Sincerely,
Jody Calemine
Director, Government Affairs