March 19 – Congressman Zach Wamp issued the following statement about today’s vote in the U.S. House of Representatives to recoup the taxpayer dollars used to pay executive bonuses from AIG and all companies that received more than $5 billion in federal bailout funds:

“The AIG bonus problem is an American problem of greed and irresponsibility. It is a political problem for the Democrats, who not only stripped out an amendment to recoup excessive bonuses, but also included language to prohibit stopping bonuses in the irresponsible stimulus bill that no Republican in the House voted for. The larger problem is one that all Americans must come together to restore accountability and trust. The vote today to ensure that money is appropriately returned to taxpayers is a step in the direction of restoring trust, but the majority party still must answer the underlying questions of who knew about this and why it was allowed.”