Voting on Stimulus Package Resumes: What to Look for as Vote Continues

Posted by Chris Bowers, Open Left at 3:00 PM on February 5, 2009.

After several hours of debate, voting on amendments to the stimulus package has resumed in the Senate (watch it on C-SPAN here). The Republican alternative to the stimulus was handily defeated along partisan lines (keep refreshing this page for the roll call).

The amendments to look out for later tonight are:

1. A revival of Sen. Patty Murray's, D-Wash., amendment to add $25 billion in infrastructure spending, including $18 billion in transportation spending.
2. A bipartisan amendment from Senrs. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., and Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, requiring TARP recipients to "repay the cash portion of bonuses topping $100,000 that were paid to employees for work last year." Given that this would actually reduce the size of the stimulus by making the government money, let's see how many Republicans vote against it.
3. An amendment by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., to place broad employee-compensation restrictions on all recipients of TARP money -- past, present and future.

It is still possible that there will be a final vote on the stimulus later tonight, once the amendments are finished. This is an open thread for Senate stimulus voting.

The Dodd amendment would apply strong executive-compensation requirements consistently to all recipients of TARP funds, regardless of whether they receive a capital injection, sell troubled assets at auction or have other types of transactions.  

The amendment:

• Bans bonuses for highest paid executives of TARP-recipient firms: Prohibits TARP recipients from paying a bonus, retention award or other similar incentive compensation to the 25 highest-paid employees, "or such higher number as the secretary of the Treasury may determine is in the public interest with respect to any TARP recipient."
• Requires a Retroactive Review: The secretary of the Treasury must review bonus awards paid to executives of TARP recipients to determine whether any payments were excessive, inconsistent with the purposes of the act or the TARP, or otherwise contrary to public interest, and if so, seek to negotiate with the recipient and the subject employee for appropriate reimbursement to the government.
• Requires each TARP recipient to include on annual proxy statement a "say on pay" proposal -- or advisory shareholder vote on the company's executive cash compensation program.
• Allows for the government to claw back any bonus or incentive compensation paid to an executive based on reported earnings or other criteria later found to be materially inaccurate.
• Prohibits compensation plans that would encourage manipulation of reported earnings.
• Requires the Board Compensation Committee of each TARP recipient to be composed entirely of independent directors; requires the committee to evaluate compensation plans and their potential risks to the financial health of the company.
• Requires the board of directors to adopt companywide policy on luxury expenditures.
• Prohibits golden parachutes to senior executives.
• Prohibits a compensation plan that has incentives for employees to take unnecessary and excessive risks that threaten the value of the company.

Tagged as: democrats, republicans, obama, dodd, stimulus

Chris Bowers was a full-time editor at MyDD from May 2004 until June 2007. Some of his projects have included the creation of the Liberal Blog Advertising Network, the first scientifically random poll of progressive, netroots activists, the Use It Or Lose It campaign, the nation's most accurate forecast of Democratic House pickups in 2006, and the 2006 Googlebomb the Elections campaign.