IV 
111TH CONGRESS 
1ST SESSION 
H. CON. RES. 76 
Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding executive and employee bo-
nuses paid by AIG and other companies assisted with taxpayer funds 
provided under the Troubled Assets Relief Program of the Secretary 
of the Treasury. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
MARCH 19, 2009 
Ms. KILROY (for herself, Mr. VAN HOLLEN, Mr. HALL of New York, Mrs. 
DAHLKEMPER, Mr. HEINRICH, Mr. LOEBSACK, Mr. BOCCIERI, Mr. CAR-
SON of Indiana, Ms. CASTOR of Florida, Mr. COHEN, Mr. CONNOLLY of 
Virginia, Ms. FUDGE, Mr. GRIFFITH, Mr. MASSA, Mr. MCNERNEY, Mr. 
NYE, Mr. PERRIELLO, Mr. RODRIGUEZ, Mr. SCHAUER, Ms. SUTTON, Ms. 
TITUS, Mr. WELCH, Mr. WILSON of Ohio, Mrs. HALVORSON, and Mr. 
MOORE of Kansas) submitted the following concurrent resolution; which 
was referred to the Committee on Financial Services 
MARCH 19, 2009 
The Committee on Financial Services discharged; considered and failed of 
adoption 
CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 
Expressing the sense of the Congress regarding executive 
and employee bonuses paid by AIG and other companies 
assisted with taxpayer funds provided under the Troubled 
Assets Relief Program of the Secretary of the Treasury. 
Whereas the Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben 
Bernanke, said in testimony to Congress on March 3, 
2008: ‘‘If there is a single episode in this entire 18 
months that has made me more angry, I can’t think of 
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•HCON 76 CDH 
one, than AIG. AIG exploited a huge gap in the regu-
latory system; there was no oversight of the financial 
products division. This was a hedge fund basically that 
was attached to a large and stable insurance company, 
made huge numbers of irresponsible bets, took huge 
losses. We had no choice.’’; 
Whereas, on March 15, 2009, Chairman Bernanke said on 
the news program ‘‘60 Minutes’’ that ‘‘we must address 
the problem of financial institutions that are deemed too 
big—or perhaps too interconnected—to fail. Given the 
highly fragile state of financial markets and the global 
economy, government assistance to avoid the failures of 
major financial institutions has been necessary to avoid 
a further serious destabilization of the financial system, 
and our commitment to avoiding such a failure remains 
firm.’’; 
Whereas the Treasury and the Federal Reserve have com-
mitted almost $200 billion in various forms of taxpayer 
assistance to AIG for the company’s liquidity shortages, 
the purchase of certain assets, and to dispose of other as-
sets for an orderly wind-down of the company; 
Whereas the commitment of almost $200 billion in taxpayer 
assistance represents one of the largest Federal govern-
ment rescues of a single private corporation in United 
States history; 
Whereas the Federal Reserve has committed tens of billions 
of taxpayer dollars in a combination of facilities to pur-
chase AIG’s mortgage-backed securities and liabilities 
tied to collateralized debt obligations; 
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•HCON 76 CDH 
Whereas the Federal government has taken a 79.9 percent 
stake in AIG in exchange for providing financial assist-
ance extending credit; 
Whereas, under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 
2008, the Bush Administration and the Obama Adminis-
tration have provided AIG with access to $70 billion in 
direct capital infusions, which in turn have been used, in 
part, to cover AIG’s collateral for positions taken by the 
company in unregulated and risky credit default swaps; 
Whereas AIG’s Financial Products division’s irresponsible 
practice of not setting aside sufficient capital to cover its 
exposure on more than $1 trillion of complex financial 
products, including credit default swaps, have threatened 
the stability of the financial system and resulted in sub-
stantial losses to the company, to pensioners, to inves-
tors, and ultimately to the taxpayer; 
Whereas, despite the irresponsible actions of AIG executives 
that threatened the company as a going concern, and ex-
posed taxpayers to almost $200 billion to cover losses 
from excessive risks, these executives will receive hun-
dreds of millions of taxpayer money in retention pay-
ments and bonuses for performance in 2008 and 2009; 
Whereas, in a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner, AIG 
CEO Edward Liddy said that ‘‘AIG also is committed to 
seeking other ways to repay the American taxpayers for 
AIG Financial Products retention payments.’’; 
Whereas, in the same letter, Liddy said that ‘‘AIG’s hands 
are tied. Outside counsel has advised that these [reten-
tion payments] are legal, binding obligations of AIG, and 
there are serious legal, as well as business, consequences 
for not paying. Given the trillion-dollar portfolio at AIG 
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Financial Products, retaining key traders and risk man-
agers is critical to our goal of repayment [to the tax-
payer].’’; 
Whereas the appropriate committees in the House of Rep-
resentatives and the Senate have already convened hear-
ings to examine the sizable government assistance pro-
vided to AIG, and the House Financial Services Com-
mittee has focused its oversight on the excessive com-
pensation provided AIG’s executives and employees, 
among other matters; 
Whereas common sense dictates that a company such as AIG 
that was so mismanaged as to threaten the stability of 
the financial system of the Nation and that requires bil-
lions of dollars of taxpayer money for its survival should 
not reward that mismanagement through lavish bonuses; 
and 
Whereas, on March 15, 2009, President Obama stated: ‘‘In 
the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums 
from the U.S. Treasury. I’ve asked Secretary Geithner to 
use that leverage and pursue every legal avenue to block 
these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole’’: 
Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate 
concurring), That it is the sense of Congress that the 
President is appropriately exercising all of the authorities 
granted by Congress under the Emergency Economic Sta-
bilization Act of 2008, and any other Federal law, by tak-
ing all necessary actions to ensure that— 
(1) in the absence of a voluntary decision by 
AIG employees and executives to forego their con-
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tractual retention bonuses, AIG will repay taxpayers 
for the hundreds of millions of dollars the company 
provided to executives and employees in retention 
bonuses; 
(2) going forward, companies that receive a 
capital infusion under title I of the Emergency Eco-
nomic Stabilization Act of 2008 that the Secretary 
of the Treasury deems necessary to restore liquidity 
and stability to the financial system of the United 
States are prohibited from providing to executives 
and employees unreasonable and excessive com-
pensation payments that are not directly tied to per-
formance measures, such as repayment of the com-
panies’ obligations to the taxpayers, profitability of 
the company, adherence to appropriate risk manage-
ment, and transparency and accountability to share-
holders, investors, and taxpayers; and 
(3) companies that receive a capital infusion 
under title I of the Emergency Economic Stabiliza-
tion Act of 2008 that the Secretary of the Treasury 
deems necessary to restore liquidity and stability to 
the financial system of the United States are com-
plying with the letter of the provisions included in 
the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act that 
strengthen executive compensation restrictions for 
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recipients of capital infusions, such as limiting base 
salaries for executives to no more than $500,000 per 
year, banning golden parachutes, limiting bonuses 
for executives, requiring shareholders to approve pay 
packages, requiring executives to certify they are 
meeting the law’s restrictions, requiring a company- 
wide policy on luxury expenditures, and prohibiting 
compensation on the basis of excessive risks that 
threaten the viability of such companies, and adher-
ing to all executive compensation guidelines the Sec-
retary of the Treasury may establish. 
Æ 
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