Providing for Consideration of HR 1257, Shareholder Vote on Executive Compensation Act
Floor Speech
PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 1257, SHAREHOLDER VOTE ON EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION ACT
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Ms. CASTOR. I thank my distinguished colleague from the Rules Committee for yielding time.
Mr. Speaker, I urge support of H.R. 1257 to provide a reality check to the skyrocketing compensation of CEOs of corporations across America. From 1995 to 2005, average CEO pay increased five times faster than that of the average worker. The American people understand the growing disparities in earnings in our country. The average CEO makes more money before lunch than the average worker earns all year. So today I urge my colleagues to bring a measure of accountability to the boardroom by allowing shareholders to voice their opinions in a meaningful way about the multimillion-dollar paydays of their CEOs.
Last week, one of my hometown newspapers, the St. Petersburg Times, reported on ``Corporate Paydays That Boggle the Mind.'' They reported that in one of the richest corporate paydays ever, the CEO of oil company Occidental Petroleum Corporation received a total compensation package last year of $416 million. These record profits and paydays at a time when my neighbors and the American people are paying record prices at the gas pump highlights the need for a new direction in this country for energy policy.
Similarly, record profits and paydays at HMO and pharmaceutical companies raise red flags at a time when patients and doctors and hospitals have lost control to many of the Bush privatization schemes in our health care system. The new Democratic Congress passed legislation fortunately during the first 100 hours to require the negotiation of the Medicare part D drug price benefit. This is very important. It's un-American to block the negotiation of fair prices under Medicare part D.
What I hear from my seniors back home is that they want Medicare part D to be simpler so that it works for them, so that it works for our seniors and it works for our taxpayers and not simply benefit the HMOs, the big drug companies and their CEOs for these large corporate paydays.
So, Mr. Speaker, I urge support of this rule and this bill to allow shareholders to send a message about corporate paydays that boggle the mind and bring a measure of accountability to our American boardrooms.
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