President Trump proposed on Monday the federal government sell off transmission lines owned and operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority.

TVA, headquartered in Knoxville, provides utility services across a seven-state footprint serving about 9 million customers that includes north Alabama.

Tennessee's senior U.S. Senator, Lamar Alexander, said in a statement Monday that there is no chance Congress would approve such a proposal.

"This looney idea of selling TVA's transmission lines seems to keep popping up regardless of who is president," Alexander said. "It has zero chance of becoming law. When President Obama proposed this in 2013, all it did was undermine TVA's credit, raise interest rates on its debt, and threaten to increase electric bills for 9 million Tennessee Valley ratepayers."

TVA, in its own statement, said the proposal was part of Trump's 2019 budget.

In a 53-page document posted on the White House website, titled "Legislative Outline for Rebuilding Infrastructure in America, TVA is mentioned only once. That came in a subsection that stated, "Providing Federal agencies authority to divest of Federal assets where the agencies can demonstrate an increase in value from the sale would optimize the taxpayer value for Federal assets."

That subsection spelled out examples of such divestiture as TVA transmission assets as well as those of three other utilities across the country. It also included both Washington-area airports - Reagan National and Dulles.

"Implementing the stated proposal in the President's 2019 budget of selling TVA's transmission assets would require Congress to act legislatively," TVA's President and Chief Executive Officer Bill Johnson said in a statement Monday. "In accordance with existing legislation, TVA will continue to pursue its mission of improving the quality of life for people in the region through our work in energy, the environment and economic development."

According to the TVA statement, the public utility "does not receive any funds from the Federal Government, but rather is completely self-funded from its power revenues and the public debt markets, and TVA's obligations are not guaranteed by the Federal government. TVA has among the lowest power rates in the country, which in combination with the high reliability of its transmission system, have led to significant economic expansion in U.S. manufacturing and other industries and businesses in the Tennessee Valley. Over the last five years, TVA has supported the creation or retention of 400,000 jobs and $48 billion in new capital investment."

According to TVA, the transmission assets described in the White House budget schedule include more than 16,000 miles of line paid for by the power customers of the Tennessee Valley over the past 85 years. The transmission system is an integral part of TVA's power system, which has delivered power at 99.999 percent reliability for the past 20 years, TVA said.

Former President Barack Obama raised the idea of the federal government selling TVA in 2013 as part of his budget proposal for 2014.