TVA Chief Jeff Lyash Steps Down After Previous Critique By Trump Of $10.5M Compensation
U.S. President Donald Trump acknowledges the crowd before addressing the 2025 Republican Issues Conference at the Trump National Doral Miami on January 27, 2025 in Doral, Florida. (Photo by Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
OAN Staff James Meyers 10:13 AM – Saturday, February 1, 2025
Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeff Lyash, who is the highest-paid federal employee with a compensation package of $10.5 million per year, announced on Friday that he was retiring 11 days after President Donald Trump returned to the White House. Trump was highly critical of Lyash’s “ridiculous” pay and vowed to fire him.
Advertisement
A TVA representative denied that Lyash was departing either in response to, or to get ahead of pressure from Trump’s team after six years on the job.
“The answer is no,” spokeswoman Melissa Greene told the New York Post. “When Jeff was hired in 2019, he told the TVA Board of Directors that he would let them know when he was seriously considering retirement. Jeff kept his word, beginning those conversations with the Board last fall.”
In his good-bye message, Lyash wrote: “While I’m looking forward to my next chapter, spending more time with family, grandchildren, and friends, I will miss our TVA team and the relationships we’ve built across this region.”
“The true strength of TVA is its people – an experienced and passionate workforce who work every day to make a difference,” Lyash added.
JUST IN: Tennessee Valley Authority CEO Jeff Lyash, the highest-paid federal employee with a $10.5 million annual salary, abruptly announced his retirement on Friday, just 11 days after President Trump returned to office.
Trump criticized Lyash during his last year in his previous administration, saying in August 2020 that “we’re getting rid of him in one form or another. Either the board’s gonna do it, or we’re gonna do it, but he’s gone.”
At the time, Trump claimed that Lyash should have been earning “no more than $500,000 a year” and should not get a “lavish” exit package.
The president earns $400,000 annually, in addition to a $50,000 allowance for expenses. Members of Congress receive a yearly salary of $174,000.
“That is the greatest job in the history of government almost, certainly if you’re into money … I’ve been waiting for somebody to ask me about that, it’s been bothering me for a long time,” Trump said at a briefing during the COVID-19 pandemic.
TVA manages hydroelectric dams and nuclear power plants.
Lash is not the only TVA employee making high wages, with chief financial officer John Thomas raking in $6.3 million a year, chief operating officer Don Moul earning $5 million, general counsel David Fountain making $3.3 million and chief nuclear officer Tim Rausch taking home $3.3 million, according to a November report from the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Representative Steve Cohen (D-Tenn.) told the New York Post in 2020 that Lyash’s pay was “out of line for a public agency.”
“Many [TVA executives] make over a million dollars running an agency set up to render energy and aid to a poor region in our country that still suffers economically in many areas,” Cohen said.
“This makes the out-of-line salaries even more distasteful. This has been wrong for decades and those salaries should be considerably reduced, particularly at this time.”
Meanwhile, TVA is making significant investments in its power system, it has invested over $22 billion in the past decade, including $4 billion in 2024 alone, and an additional $16 billion over the next several years toward new transmission and generation.
Stay informed! Receive breaking news blasts directly to your inbox for free. Subscribe here. https://www.oann.com/alerts
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.