[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 3500 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 3500

To amend the Federal Power Act to require the Federal Energy Regulatory 
  Commission to annually submit to Congress a report on the status of 
              ongoing hydropower relicensing applications.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           December 16, 2025

Ms. Cortez Masto (for herself and Mr. Daines) introduced the following 
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and 
                           Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Federal Power Act to require the Federal Energy Regulatory 
  Commission to annually submit to Congress a report on the status of 
              ongoing hydropower relicensing applications.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Hydropower Licensing Transparency 
Act''.

SEC. 2. ANNUAL LICENSING STATUS REPORT.

    Part I of the Federal Power Act (16 U.S.C. 792 et seq.) is amended 
by adding at the end the following:

``SEC. 37. ANNUAL LICENSING STATUS REPORT.

    ``(a) In General.--Not later than 180 days after the date of 
enactment of this section, and annually thereafter, the Commission 
shall submit to Congress a report on the status of--
            ``(1) the licensing process for each new license, and for 
        each subsequent license for which sections 14 and 15 have been 
        waived, for which the existing licensee has notified the 
        Commission under section 15(b)(1) at least 3 years prior to 
        submission of the report that the existing licensee intends to 
        file an application for the new license or subsequent license, 
        but the new license or subsequent license has not yet been 
        issued under section 15; and
            ``(2) the licensing process for each original license under 
        section 4(e) for which a citizen, association, corporation, 
        State, Indian Tribe, or municipality has notified the 
        Commission, pursuant to applicable regulations, at least 3 
        years prior to submission of the report that the citizen, 
        association, corporation, State, Indian Tribe, or municipality 
        intends to file an application for the original license, but 
        the original license has not yet been issued under section 
        4(e).
    ``(b) Inclusions.--Each report submitted under subsection (a) shall 
include, with respect to the licensing process for each new license and 
subsequent license described in that subsection and the licensing 
process for each original license described in that subsection--
            ``(1) the date the notice of intent described in that 
        subsection was provided to the Commission;
            ``(2) any docket number assigned with respect to the 
        licensing process;
            ``(3) whether any application for the new license, 
        subsequent license, or original license, as applicable, has 
        been filed;
            ``(4) information regarding the status of the application, 
        including the date the Commission anticipates the Commission 
        will issue the original license, subsequent license, or new 
        license, as applicable;
            ``(5) the date of any upcoming proceeding or other meeting 
        relating to the original license, subsequent license, or new 
        license, as applicable; and
            ``(6) a description of any ongoing or completed actions 
        required of the existing licensee, citizen, association, 
        corporation, State, Indian Tribe, municipality, Commission, any 
        fish and wildlife agency referred to in section 15(b)(3), and 
        any other applicable agency.
    ``(c) Disaggregation of Information by License Type.--The 
information included in each report submitted under subsection (a) 
shall be disaggregated by whether the information relates to a new 
license, or a subsequent license, issued under section 15 or an 
original license issued under section 4(e).''.
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