NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — President Donald Trump has fired the chair of the Tennessee Valley Authority, criticizing the federally owned corporation for hiring foreign workers.
Trump said Monday at the White House that he was formally removing chair Skip Thompson and another member of the board and threatened to remove other board members if they keep hiring foreign labor.
The TVA is a federally owned corporation created in 1933 to provide flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing and economic development to the Tennessee Valley. The region covers most of Tennessee and parts of Alabama, Mississippi, Kentucky, Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.
Sen. Lamar Alexander responded to the decision:
“TVA may have shown poor judgment hiring foreign companies during a pandemic, but, on most counts, it does a very good job of producing large amounts of low-cost, reliable electricity. Residential electric rates are among the 25 percent lowest in the country, and industrial rates are among the lowest 10 percent. TVA’s debt is the lowest in 30 years, its pension fund is stronger and TVA leads the country in new nuclear power plants. According to TVA, the annual total compensation of TVA’s CEO is in the bottom fourth of what the CEOs of other big utilities earn and is set strictly according to requirements of federal law. TVA receives no federal tax dollars.”
