Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., has an AIG problem — and just in time for his re-election next year.
Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, acknowledged Wednesday that he, as Bloomberg News put it, “weakened a provision dealing with executive pay in last month’s stimulus legislation at the request of the Obama administration.” The provision inserted in the bill instead expressly allowed companies that received taxpayer bailout money to pay retention bonuses that were part of employment contracts signed before Feb. 11, 2009. That would include the AIG bonuses, although Dodd has said he didn’t know about the AIG bonuses at the time.
In an e-mailed statement, Dodd told Bloomberg, “I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment but I did so at the request of administration officials.”
