Baucus expands witness list for bank tax hearing

Two additional witnesses will appear at Tuesday's bank tax hearing hosted by Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.). 

James Chessen, chief economist at the American Bank Association, and Patrick Baird, Chairman of AEGON USA, will now join Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Financial Services Roundtable CEO Steven Bartlett and John Sorensen, president and CEO of the Iowa Bankers Association, at the witness table. 

Tuesday's hearing will be the second of three that Baucus is expected to host as his committee looks to fulfill President Obama's request to tax financial institutions that take extraordinary risks. Under the president's proposal, firms with over $50 billion in assets would be subjected to the levy to help recover losses from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).  

Baucus convened the first bank hearing on Apr. 20 with the TARP's program's Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky to examine the broader effort to recoup TARP losses.  

Lawmakers at Tuesday's hearing are expected to explore alternatives on how to structure the tax and hear from industry experts on how it could affect their businesses.