U.S. Congressman José E. Serrano ~ Representing the people of the 16th District of New York

Chairman Serrano: Limiting Executive Pay Right Move

October 22, 2009 – Washington, DC — Congressman José E. Serrano, Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government, met this morning with Special Master for Executive Compensation under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), Kenneth R. Feinberg, to talk about the first round of pay restrictions being imposed on top executives at bailed out companies. After the meeting, Chairman Serrano, said he “strongly supports” the new restrictions, and “thinks this is a valuable move to protect taxpayers’ interests.”

“Executives at companies that were bailed out by the taxpayers—which prevented their companies from going under—cannot expect their pay packages to be ‘business as usual’,” said Serrano. “I believe that the measures that Ken Feinberg is taking are fair, balanced and should set an example for the rest of Wall Street. It remains incomprehensible to my constituents how an executive could be awarded a multi-million dollar bonus after essentially running a company into the ground. In most other lines of work, you don’t get a bonus for failing at your job.

“Ken elaborated to me that he is not making these decisions subjectively, but is instead implementing the very prescriptive legislative language that Congress wrote for this situation under TARP. I believe that point is central, should there be complaints about his actions or allegations that this is unfair. If the people with lowered pay feel wronged, they are free to come talk to Congress about their grievances. We are accountable to the taxpayers for the TARP money we spent on their behalf, and therefore, it was our decision to rein in this excessive compensation.”

Corporations affected by the Treasury Department’s announcement are: AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, Chrysler, GM, GMAC and Chrysler Financial.

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Congressman José E. Serrano has represented the Bronx in Congress since 1990. He chairs the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Financial Services and General Government.

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