Posted on 03/31/2009 7:58:44 PM PDT by vadum
More Mussolini-style corporatism from Capitol Hill Democrats.
The House Financial Services Committee, chaired by Barney Frank, approved legislation handing Treasury Secretary Geithner extensive control over salaries of employees who work for businesses that take in government bailout funds.
As the Washington Examiner reports
[I]n a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.
The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.
The bill also gives Geithner authority to decide what pay is "unreasonable" or "excessive."
(Excerpt) Read more at spectator.org ...
“Barney Frank Wants the Government to Set Your Salary”
And he wants us all paid in $3 bills too, no doubt.
When WE get to set YOUR salary, Barney, you pompous pustule.
WHY should THESE employees have any different payroll treatment from ANY OTHER government employees? GM is now Government Motors, after all.
I wish we could fire his ass... wait, he might enjoy that. How in God's name could there be a congressional district full of enough people dammed stupid enough to vote for this ass pirate to congress time and time again?
Goofy birds of a feather.
Like all those motivated by socialism, they are likely voting their self-interest. He's likely promised them things that they haven't earned. That seems to be the ticket to office for most liberals.
Declares such prohibition inapplicable to an institution that did business with a recipient of a direct capital investment under the TARP.
Instructs the Secretary, with the approval of the agencies that are members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, and in consultation with the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel, to establish standards governing: (1) unreasonable and excessive compensation; and (2) performance-based measures that a financial institution must apply when determining whether it may provide a bonus or retention payment.
Requires financial institutions subject to this Act to report annually to the Secretary how many officers, directors, and employees received or will receive total compensation over each of five specified thresholds in that fiscal year.
Requires such report to distinguish amounts an institution considers to be a bonus and the reason for such distinction.
Thomas.gov
H.R.1664 Defines total compensation as all cash payments (including without limitation salary, bonus, and retention payments), all transfers of property, stock options, sales of stock, and all contributions by the company (or its affiliates) for a person's benefit. States that the identity of persons receiving compensation in such amounts shall not be required in such reports. Directs the Secretary to make such reports available on the Internet. Requires a financial institution, while subject to this Act, to issue: (1) a retrospective annual report for 2008; and (2) both a prospective and retrospective annual report for each subsequent calendar year. States that, for a financial institution that has received or receives a direct capital investment under TARP, while such investment remains outstanding, no otherwise prohibited bonus or other supplemental payment may be paid to employees or executives without regard to when the arrangement to pay such a bonus was entered into.
Amends the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) to prohibit a financial institution that receives or has received a direct capital investment under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) (or with respect to the Federal National Mortgage Association [Fannie Mae], the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation [Freddie Mac], or a federal home loan bank, under the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008) from making a compensation payment (other than a longevity bonus or a payment in the form of restricted stock) to an executive or employee under a pre-existing compensation arrangement, or from entering into a new compensation payment arrangement, while that capital investment remains outstanding, if such compensation: (1) is unreasonable or excessive according to standards established by the Secretary of the Treasury in consultation with the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel; or (2) includes any bonus or other supplemental payment not directly based upon such standards.
Declares such prohibition inapplicable to an institution that did business with a recipient of a direct capital investment under the TARP.
Instructs the Secretary, with the approval of the agencies that are members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council, and in consultation with the Chairperson of the Congressional Oversight Panel, to establish standards governing: (1) unreasonable and excessive compensation; and (2) performance-based measures that a financial institution must apply when determining whether it may provide a bonus or retention payment.
Requires financial institutions subject to this Act to report annually to the Secretary how many officers, directors, and employees received or will receive total compensation over each of five specified thresholds in that fiscal year.
Requires such report to distinguish amounts an institution considers to be a bonus and the reason for such distinction.
Defines total compensation as all cash payments (including without limitation salary, bonus, and retention payments), all transfers of property, stock options, sales of stock, and all contributions by the company (or its affiliates) for a person's benefit.
States that the identity of persons receiving compensation in such amounts shall not be required in such reports.
Directs the Secretary to make such reports available on the Internet.
Requires a financial institution, while subject to this Act, to issue: (1) a retrospective annual report for 2008; and (2) both a prospective and retrospective annual report for each subsequent calendar year.
States that, for a financial institution that has received or receives a direct capital investment under TARP, while such investment remains outstanding, no otherwise prohibited bonus or other supplemental payment may be paid to employees or executives without regard to when the arrangement to pay such a bonus was entered into.
Anybody else remember that? Anybody remember who the president was? Or am I the oldest person here?
I must confess, at the time I was more than happy to have my salary frozen in return for the price freezes. That says something.
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