Title 16 › Chapter CHAPTER 12G— - PACIFIC NORTHWEST FEDERAL TRANSMISSION SYSTEM › § 838i
Creates a Bonneville Power Administration fund in the U.S. Treasury. The fund holds the Administrator’s cash receipts, proceeds from bonds the Administrator sells, any money Congress puts in the fund, and certain transferred balances: money from the special Treasury account under Executive Order 8526 (August 26, 1940), unspent money from the continuing fund under section 832j, and other unspent amounts made available for the Bonneville Power Administration. The Secretary of Energy, through the Administrator, may spend these funds for authorized Federal Columbia River transmission system purposes, subject to any limits in appropriation laws while Congress reviews the Administrator’s next annual budget. The Administrator may spend fund money that is included in the annual budget sent to Congress without asking for another appropriation and without being limited to one fiscal year, but must follow specific directions in appropriation acts. The fund can pay for 12 broad types of needs, including building and fixing the transmission system, operating and maintaining it, electrical research, marketing power, using or renting others’ transmission facilities, buying power in certain short-term or authorized cases (including duties under section 4(h) of the Pacific Northwest Electric Power Planning and Conservation Act), emergency costs, bond interest and principal and related reserves, required payments to reclamation or Treasury accounts, buying goods and services and paying memberships, and actions needed to carry out the Pacific Northwest Act. Appropriated money must be used only for the purpose it was given, and trust funds only for their trust purpose. Financial rules in title 31, chapter 91 apply as to similar government corporations, but they do not change the Administrator’s authority to buy goods and pay dues as described above. The Comptroller General will audit the Administrator’s financial transactions as needed and must send audit reports to Congress within 6½ months after the fiscal year covered.
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Conservation — Source: USLM XML via OLRC
Legislative History
Reference
Citation
16 U.S.C. § 838i
Title 16 — Conservation
Last Updated
Apr 6, 2026
Release point: 119-73