Senate Slow to Take up Bill that Would Tax Executive Bonuses
bonusbill
Bangor Daily News
Drew FitzGerald
Boston University Washington News Service
March 26, 2009
WASHINGTON – One week after the House of Representatives rushed to pass legislation imposing heavy taxes on bonuses paid to American International Group executives, Senate leaders are signaling they could take two weeks or more before they address it.
The bill the House passed last week would impose a 90 percent tax on executive bonuses paid by corporations that received more than $5 billion in bailout money. But Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said senators might not debate the House bill or a more moderate version from the Senate Finance Committee until late April.
Asked Wednesday about the House bill’s chances, Sen. Arlen Spector, R-Pa., said the bill would be in better shape “if it were on life support.”
Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, an original sponsor of legislation that would tax executive bonuses, called the Obama administration responsible for the delay.
“The resistance for this legislation emanates from the administration – no question,” Snowe said in an interview. “By all admissions and all accounts that was the case.”
One effort Snowe proposed with Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., in February would have taxed all large bonuses that bailout recipients paid their executives in 2008 at an extra 35 percent. Snowe aides acknowledged the legislation would not have rescinded the AIG bonuses paid this spring, but it would have applied to larger bonuses paid by other firms.
The Snowe-Wyden amendment passed the Senate on a voice vote with little public opposition but vanished after Democrats hammered out the final version of the bill in conference committee. When Congress passed the final bill that arrived on President Barack Obama’s desk, the provision had been completely stripped.
“That had to come from the administration,” Snowe said. “There’s no question about that.”
But Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, expressed concerns about the Snow-Wyden legislation during an appearance on “This Week with George Stephanopoulos” Sunday.
“We need to be careful,” Collins said according to a transcript of the program. “The problem with the Senate bill is it is so wide in its scope that it would apply to tens of thousands of employees all across this country who had nothing to do with getting us in this mess.”
Snowe said the Senate proposal would not punish middle-class executives because it would apply only to bonuses of more than $50,000.
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