Federal agency established to assist in the development of the Tennessee River and adjacent areas. TVA bonds and notes are secured by a first charge on the agency's net income before interest and depreciation. Principal and interest payments rank ahead of the TVA?s annual payments to the Treasury.

The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) is a federally owned corporation in the United States created in 1933 to provide navigation, flood control, electricity generation, fertilizer manufacturing, and economic development in the Tennessee Valley, a region particularly hard hit by the Great Depression. The TVA was envisioned not only as an electricity provider, but also as a regional economic development agency that would use federal experts and electricity to rapidly modernize the region's economy and society. The TVA's jurisdiction covers most of Tennessee, parts of Alabama, Mississippi and Kentucky, and small slices of Georgia, North Carolina and Virginia.