Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) indicated last week she does not favor the so-called "binding arbitration" part of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) as currently written.
Lincoln joins two other centrist Democrats in opposition to the second key component of EFCA favored by organized labor, making it difficult for a final compromise of the bill including the provision to overcome a Senate filibuster.
Lincoln reiterated her opposition to EFCA, the El-Dorado News-Times reported May 1st, but when asked what specific elements of the bill she had issues with, Lincoln cited the "arbitration piece," among other aspects of the legislation.
The so-called "binding arbitration" portion of the bill would refer an employer and union to a federal mediator after 90 days of collective bargaining and invoke arbitration after 30 additional days, the decision from which would be binding for two years. However, parties engaged in a negotiation could agree to extend those deadlines.
Sens. Arlen Specter (D-Pa.) and Ben Nelson (D-Neb.) have expressed their qualms about the arbitration section.
The companies that applied to partner with the government to take on banks' bad assets may face restrictions on executive compensation and other elements of their business, the chairwoman of the bailouts' oversight panel said Monday.
"I think these are entirely appropriate questions," Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) Oversight Panel Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren asserted during an appearance on CNBC.
"If you want to take taxpayer dollars, you cannot conduct business as usual," Warren argued. "You are now involved in a giant government program in which we are spending taxpayer dollars to try to support a market that is clearly stumbling."
While companies that have directly received bailout funds have been subject to regulations on their compensation and spending, Warren indicated those practices could very well spread to the 100 investment firms that have applied to the Treasury Department to the Public-Private Investment Program (PPIP).
The names companies who are accepted into the program, in which private firms would take on financial institutions' toxic assets with government backing, could come as early as the end of this week.
The caps on executive pay have been a hot-button issue politically, perhaps reaching its apex when the American Insurance Group (AIG) having awarded bonuses to its employees while on the taxpayer dole. Congress attempted to recoup those bonuses after the AIG news sparked public outrage.
The "great fear" among lawmakers is that the government might force management in companies in which it now has a stake, the second-ranking Senate Republican argued Friday.
"That's the great fear," Senate Minority Whip Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) said in an interview with Bloomberg News. "I was a big advocate of TARP both times around; I felt it was important."
"But we didn't want to see the government gradually be taking over the management of companies," he continued. "And originally we were assured that wouldn't happen. This would be a big step in that direction."
The initial ouster of GM CEO Rick Wagoner stoked the ire of a number of conservative lawmakers, who complained the Obama administration had excessively intervened in the company's business.
Kyl insinuated that Washington has done a poor job of working with automakers and banks, and that increased intervention by the government would likely further harm the economy.
While the economy is beginning to show signs of recovery, it won't have fully recovered until greater consumer protections are put in place, President Obama said in the weekly radio address.
Obama called for the Senate to pass a bill to strengthen consumer protections on credit cards.
"Because American institutions must act with the same sense of responsibility and fairness that the American people aspire to in their own lives," the president said. "Nowhere is this more apparent than in our credit card industry."
The economy is showing "glimmers of hope," Labor Secretary Hilda Solis asserted Friday, but it is too soon to say whether the economy is on the road to recovery -- or whether another stimulus package may be needed.
"All I can tell you is that we're seeing some glimmer of hope," Solis told Bloomberg News in an interview this morning. "I know that because of the transactions in the financing business -- more transparencies there -- that people will be able to have more credit available."
But the uncertainty, Solid said, means it is also too early to decide on a second stimulus package.
"I still think it's a bit too early to project that," she said. "Because keep in mind we have the stimulus money that still hasn't been rolled out."
Solis also downplayed a question on the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), saying that she is "personally working on trying to stimulate the economy right now" when she was asked what she'd personally done to help pass the union legislation.
"While the president and I are committed to the Employee Free Choice Act," she continued, "my focus right now is to make sure we get our funding out for job creation and job growth."
Bank of America may be able to begin paying back its loans from the government now that stress tests have provided clarity to the marker, the company's CEO said Friday.
BofA CEO John Lewis told CNBC in an interview that the company would begin exploring ways to raise private capital to meet the $34 billion threshold Treasury Department tests determined the bank needed to raise.
"If we can get some clarity around the ability to do that, we could be paying back the TARP hopefully relatively soon," Lewis said.
Lewis also said that the bank was largely at the mercy of the government during the stress tests.
"I wouldn't say we negotiated [with the government]," Lewis said on CNBC. "We got some changes based on, obviously, the first quarter performance...There weren't a lot of substantive changes other than those kinds of things."
Lewis also termed calls for the breakup of Bank of America "absurd."
Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli's successor is almost sure to face a cap on his or her compensation in exchange for the federal government's assistance for the troubled automaker.
The new Chrysler CEO, expected to be installed once the company completes its partnership with Italian automaker Fiat, will likely not earn more than $500,000 per year, the Detroit Free Press reported Tuesday.
Executive compensation became a hot button issue after the government's bailout of a number of financial and industrial companies. Most notably, the American Insurance Group (AIG) received intense scrutiny for handing out bonuses to executives while on the government dole.
Under Treasury rules, the new Chrysler chief could not earn more than $500,000, but could receive restricted stock shares which could only be sold after the company repays its loans to the government.
The government many not have to open its purse to banks that have been shown to need more capital in the latest round of stress tests, Joint Economic Committee (JEC) Chairwoman Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday.
Maloney asserted that increasingly positive indicators on the economy and increased consumer confidence may lure private investors into recapitalizing banks with bad assets.
"I hope they'll be able to raise it from the free enterprise system and from private sources; that's always the preferred course," Maloney said this morning during an interview on CNBC.
Still, the JEC head said that the government would be prepared to pour money into troubled institutions -- if nothing else than to show that the U.S. is still willing to backstop undercapitalized institutions."
"We have additional TARP money available, and the government will step in" if private investors remain skittish, Maloney said. "And knowing that the government will be there in the crisis, I believe, has helped build confidence in the public during this economic downturn."
The controversial "card check" provision in the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) may be dropped in a compromise, one of the bill's Democratic sponsors in the Senate said Monday.
"Compromises are going to be made," Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa) told Bloomberg News. "It [the bill] probably won
A study funded by organized labor released Monday argued that an Illinois labor law similar to the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) resulted in none of the drawbacks the law's opponents fear.
University of Illinois Professor Robert Bruno asserted in a report that the Illinois program "has worked without systematic or episodic employer or union abuse," particularly in regards to the "card check" provision in the legislation.
Conservative and business groups have alleged that that provision would strip union members of a private vote in union elections, and open the door to voter intimidation.
"Today's report shows that corporations are throwing more lies to keep workers from forming unions," said AFL-CIO President John Sweeney in a statement accompanying the report. "Workers form unions to bargain for a better life, not because of outside intimidation. Workers need the majority sign up provision because it gives workers the choice of how to form a union, not corporations."
A spokeswoman for the AFL-CIO acknowledged Monday that the study was commissioned by organized labor groups, and partly funded by one of the AFL-CIO's arms. Bruno has also previously spoken out in favor of EFCA.
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