[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8271]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              INTRODUCTION OF THE PAY FOR PERFORMANCE ACT

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                           HON. ALAN GRAYSON

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, March 23, 2009

  Mr. GRAYSON. Madam Speaker, tonight I am proud to introduce the Pay 
for Performance Act of 2009.
  Madam Speaker, this bill is based on two simple concepts. One, no one 
has the right to get rich off taxpayer money. And two, no one should 
get rich off abject failure.
  An economy in which a bank executive can line his own pocket by 
destroying his company with risky bets is an economy that will spiral 
downwards. And a government that hands out money to such executives is 
a government that fails to protect the taxpayers.
  Our job is to act on behalf of taxpayers to fix our economy, and we 
do so tonight with this bill.
  Madam Speaker, the U.S. Government spent $170 billion to stabilize 
AIG, and it now owns 80% of that company. Yet recently, AIG paid more 
than $165 million in bonuses to 73 employees with this taxpayer money. 
That is like paying an arsonist to put out his own fires.
  The restrictions in this bill apply only to financial institutions 
that have taken capital investments from the taxpayer, and they are 
commonsense restrictions. Pay can't be excessive or unreasonable, and 
bonuses must be based on performance standards. And if the banks want 
to avoid these common-sense restrictions, there's a very simple 
solution--just pay the bailout money back to the government, as so many 
banks claim they want to do. I know the taxpayers in my district will 
take it back happily.
  As I asked the CEO of AIG when he came to testify before the 
Financial Services committee, is it more important to protect bank 
executives who have lost billions of dollars, or to protect us? The 
answer to that question is now before this body.
  I know which side I'm on.
  I encourage my colleagues to cosponsor this important bill.

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