Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., is blaming a mischievous “gremlin” at the White House for a bad policy in President Trump’s fiscal 2019 budget that would sell off the electric transmission assets of the Tennessee Valley Authority, a large public power utility, in his state.

“There is a thing called TVA, which is in Tennessee, and there’s some gremlin over in the Office of Management and Budget, and for every president, somehow, this gremlin makes his way through the floor and gets into some budget proposal to sell either Bonneville or TVA, the transmission assets,” Alexander said in questioning Energy Secretary Rick Perry on Wednesday.