Wyden Dismayed That Bipartisan Proposal to Repay Wall Street Bonuses From TARP Funds Stripped from Recovery Bill

Washington, DC Thanking his cosponsors Senator Olympia Snowe (R-Maine) and Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark) for their leadership in fighting for the recovery of employee bonuses to financial institutions that took "federal bailout" funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), US Senator Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) said that he would find an opportunity to reintroduce the Wyden-Snowe-Lincoln amendment which was stripped from the final language of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The provision would have required institutions that took bailout funds to either repay the cash portion of any bonus paid in excess of $100000 early within 120 days of the amendment's enactment or face an excise tax of 35% on what is not immediately repaid to the treasury. Savings to be returned by recovering TARP-funded bonuses from Wall Street and bank executives were estimated to bring $3.2 billion back to taxpayers.