THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF PENNSYLVANIA

SENATE RESOLUTION

INTRODUCED BY WILLIAMS, TARTAGLIONE, WASHINGTON, RAFFERTY, FARNESE, FONTANA, BOSCOLA, O'PAKE, STACK AND WARD, APRIL 17, 2009

REFERRED TO BANKING AND INSURANCE, APRIL 17, 2009  

A RESOLUTION

Urging Pennsylvania financial institutions who have received

taxpayer dollars from the Federal Emergency Economic

Stabilization Act of 2008 to prohibit issuing employee

bonuses until such time that the American taxpayers have been

fully reimbursed.

WHEREAS, In 2008, the Congress of the United States passed

and the President signed into law the Emergency Economic

Stabilization Act which directed the United States Secretary of

the Treasury to give domestic and foreign financial institutions

up to $700 billion total under a program referred to as the

Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP); and

WHEREAS, TARP has so far given aid to financial institutions

in the amount of more than $300 billion; and

WHEREAS, TARP puts strict controls over which financial

institutions will receive the funding, how much the institution

will receive and how much the institution can pay the

institution's executives; and

WHEREAS, Due to a loophole in the language of the Federal

Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, there is no

limitation in place on executive compensation in the form of

bonus payments to the executives by the financial institution;

and

WHEREAS, After receiving TARP funds, AIG, a financial

institution that lost more than $60 billion in the fourth

quarter of 2008, gave the executive-level workers more than $160

million, including single bonuses of at least $1 million up to

more than $6 million, to 73 different top-level executives; and

WHEREAS, In Pennsylvania the unemployment rate is around

7.5%, including a loss of more than 41,000 jobs in February

alone, and the foreclosure rate has risen by approximately 130%

from this time last year, with more than 3,500 homes going into

foreclosure in February; and

WHEREAS, The rationale behind the Federal Emergency Economic

Stabilization Act was to stabilize the economy and help the

housing market in order to provide some relief to the current

economic crisis brought on in part by failure in the assets held

by these financial institutions; therefore be it 

RESOLVED, That the Senate of Pennsylvania urge Pennsylvania

financial institutions who received taxpayer dollars from the

Federal Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 to prohibit

issuing employee bonuses until such time that the American

taxpayers have been fully reimbursed.