The Tennessee Valley Authority has abandoned its plans to outsource information technology work to outside firms, after President Trump put the agency’s leaders in his crosshairs this week.
The about-face was announced Thursday by TVA CEO Jeff Lyash, after a meeting with Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and White House attorney Pat Cipollone. Lyash was one of the executives whom Trump targeted in remarks he made Monday after firing TVA board chair “Skip” Thompson and board member Richard Howorth. Thompson was appointed by Trump in 2018; Howorth was an Obama appointee.
Trump threatened Lyash’s job if the outsourcing decision wasn’t changed. He also criticized Lyash’s $8 million salary and benefits package, calling it “ridiculous.”
TVA is currently trying to convince its biggest customer, Memphis Light, Gas and Water, to resign its contract with the federal utility. Several different studies have found that MLGW would save between $100 and $400 million by leaving TVA and buying its electricty from elsewhere. Lyash has been the face of the public campaign to persuade Memphis leaders and residents otherwise.
TVA, the nation’s largest federally-chartered power company, said its previous decision to lay off more than 60 IT workers in Chattanooga and Knoxville was a cost-saving measure. Critics pointed out that three of the new proposed contractors were based outside the United States.
TVA pushed back, saying the work had to be done within the U.S. by workers legally cleared to work in the country. But Trump seized on the optics to charge TVA with betraying American workers.
The rebuke and the firings had the desired effect. Lyash said Thursday the agency would immediately reverse course and order a review of all its contracts to ensure they comply with the president’s recently signed executive order limiting how federal agencies can work with foreign-born employees under H-1B visas.
“We were wrong in not fully understanding the impact on our employees, especially during the pandemic,” Lyash said after the White House meeting. “We are taking immediate actions to address this situation. TVA fully understands and supports the Administration’s commitment to preserving and growing American jobs.”
TVA’s reversal was cheered by U.S. Tech Workers, an anti-H1B nonprofit group that says it represents American tech workers’ interests. The group recently took out TV ads urging the president to intervene in the TVA outsourcing situation.
Speaking at an Ohio campaign rally Thursday before TVA publicly announced its reversal, Trump invoked his reality TV catchphrase, “You’re fired,” and told the crowd firings would continue unless the IT layoffs were undone.
Trump’s firing of Thompson and Howorth drew some approval from across the aisle. James Mackler, a candidate for the Democratic nomination for U.S. Senate, said, “Outsourcing jobs to private contracting companies … during a pandemic that has already taken more than 50 million American jobs, is wrong and undermines the mission of TVA. I support the president’s decision to do something about it.”
This story was reported by WUOT.
Copyright 2020 WKNO