​NRECA and the American Public Power Association (APPA) sent a letter to Energy Secretary Rick Perry opposing the Trump Administration's Fiscal Year 2018 proposal to sell the transmission assets of three federal Power Marketing Administrations (PMAs). Approximately 1,200 public power utilities and rural electric cooperatives in 34 states purchase cost-based power produced at federal hydropower projects from the PMAs. Through long-term contracts, PMA customers have repaid all power program expenses, plus the interest on any capital projects, and have ensured continued investment in the federal infrastructure. For many decades, this arrangement has been a win-win for the federal government and for public power and rural electric cooperative utilities, their retail customers and their communities. FULL LETTER

Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette subsequently sent a letter to NRECA in response.

Fifty House members wrote to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Budget Committee opposing the proposal as well. This bipartisan group of lawmakers argued that the federal government should not end a successful solution for providing affordable power in poor and rural communities.FULL LETTER