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.
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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.
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