Senate Approves New TVA Board Members

Amid wrangling over the fiscal cliff, the Senate has confirmed four new directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority. If the Senate had not taken action, TVA wouldn’t have enough board members to do business.

President Obama nominated new members in September, but their appointments languished in the Senate. They were finally approved without debate last night, along with dozens of nominees to other federal boards and commissions.Two of the new directors are from Tennessee. One is an accountant from Memphis. The other is Mike McWherter, a Democrat who lost the governor’s race to Bill Haslam in 2010.Tennessee Republican Senator Bob Corker has been critical of TVA’s board in recent months, saying some of its members don’t have the business sense it takes to run an $11 billion organization. But in a statement, Corker says he’s ‘encouraged’ by the background of the new board members and that they have the right experience for the job.