Senator Dodd, Chairman of the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs, today issued the following statement on his executive compensation amendment:

“I’m the one who has led the fight against excessive executive compensation, often over the objections of many.  I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate-passed amendment but I did so at the request of Administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG.  Let me be clear – I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week.

“Reports that I changed my position on this issue are simply untrue.  I answered a question by CNN last night regarding whether or not a specific date was aimed at protecting AIG.  When I saw that my comments had been misconstrued, I felt it was important to set the record straight – that this had nothing to do with AIG.

“Fortunately, we wrote this amendment in a way that allows the Treasury Department to go back and review these bonus contracts and seek to recover the money for taxpayers.  Again, I have led the fight to curb excessive executive compensation, and will continue to do so.”

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