Democrats: LoBiondo Protects Wall Street Bonuses

WASHINGTON — According to a release from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, after months of ‘just saying no’ to helping families on Main Street with everything from middle class tax cuts to shovel-ready projects that create jobs immediately, U.S. Rep. Frank LoBiondo (R-2nd) Wednesday, March 1 finally said yes to something – continuing to use taxpayer money to pay outrageous bonuses to incompetent Wall Street bankers.
LoBiondo opposed a measure to stop taxpayer money from being used to pay the same kind of outrageous bonuses that went to AIG and other Wall Street companies that got us into this mess to begin with.
“Rather than side with middle class families who are worried about keeping their jobs, today Representative Frank LoBiondo sided with Wall Street executives making outrageous bonuses paid for by the taxpayers,” said Jennifer Crider, Communications Director for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.
“Representative LoBiondo’s vote today to continue rewarding AIG and other Wall Street executives with outrageous bonuses that reward failure proves just how phony his outrage over these taxpayer-funded bonuses really is.”
Background
· The Pay for Performance Act (HR 1664) will ensure that in the future no more Wall Street institutions can take government bailouts and then pay large bonuses for the people who caused the economic crisis. [H.R. 1664, #182 , 4/1/09]
· This bill will directly tie pay to performance for employees of companies that received capital infusions from the federal government.
· It requires the Secretary of the Treasury to define and ban excessive and unreasonable compensation at companies that received TARP funds.
· It bans any so-called “retention bonuses” such as those received by AIG executives until after the government has been fully repaid.
· It mandates all future bonuses until the companies have repaid the taxpayer be based on performance and not be excessive.
· Additionally, this bill will ensure that all of the prospective executive compensation limits that were included in the stimulus bill will now also apply to any contracts entered into before February 11th, thereby closing the so-called “Dodd loophole.”