Key Vote No: H.R. 3269

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On behalf of over 700,000 FreedomWorks members nationwide, I urge you to VOTE NO on H.R. 3269—the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, D-MA.

Perhaps most startling about this bill is that the new mandates it establishes on the private sector are so broad and ill-defined that the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is unable to determine just how much these rules will cost the economy, making it impossible to conduct a cost-benefit analysis.  According to CBO:

Because the cost of some of the mandates in the bill would depend on federal regulations yet to be established, CBO cannot determine whether the total cost of those mandates would exceed the annual threshold in UMRA for private-sector mandates ($139 million in 2009, adjusted annually for inflation).

We have seen with the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) the danger of Congress delegating too much power to unelected bureaucrats.  It is why the Founding Fathers found the non-delegation principle so important.  With the disaster that is TARP so fresh in every Congressman’s mind, one would hope violating that central tenant of our democracy again would be as big a concern to Congress as it is to the American people.

Among other concerns, this bill also introduces federal control of employee compensation to a degree that is both constitutionally questionable and has no place in a market economy.  Just as the government should not bailout failed businesses, the government should not dictate how businesses compensate their employees.

Part of the market process that determines which businesses fail and which ones succeed is how well they determine the value of their employee’s contribution and the compensation they will be given.  About 60 percent of publicly traded companies currently have shareholders vote on executive compensation.  It is unlikely that empowering a bureaucrat who has no stake in a company to decide how that company’s executives will be paid will result in a better outcome than allowing those with a direct stake determine compensation, or what role they would like in deciding compensation.
We will count your vote on H.R. 3269, the Corporate and Financial Institution Compensation Fairness Act, as a KEY VOTE when calculating the FreedomWorks Economic Scorecard for 2009.  The FreedomWorks Economic Scorecard is used to determine eligibility for the Jefferson Award, which recognizes members of Congress with voting records that support economic freedom.