FOX "On The Record" - Transcript

Interview

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MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Earlier, we spoke with Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa.

(Begin videotaped interview.)

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Senator, you were part of the conference supposedly to reconcile the Senate version of the stimulus bill and the House version, right?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yes.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Did you actually go to this conference because it's actually quite important because of this provision which enables AIG to get $165 million bonuses? Did you go to that conference?

SEN. GRASSLEY: We did not even know where the conference was meeting or when it was meeting until the last night before the report came out. About 8:00 at night, they called a committee meeting in a room just off the Senate floor. A lot of people there. And we sat down with six Democrats and four Republicans. That's the first time we were involved. We were told that that was going to be the last session of the meeting. And the first thing the chairman of the conference committee said to everybody, he rapped the gavel and said something like this, we'll listen to speeches, but I'm not going to take any motions or any amendments. In other words, that was their way of saying that six Democrats had met someplace over the course of several hours, worked out the difference between the House and Senate and said, this is it.

And that was all we had to say. I made a statement about the process. I made a statement about some of the substance as best I knew it, and we didn't know much about it at that time because it was 12 hours later we got it on our desk, and we only had 12 hours to read it. And obviously, we didn't get it all read in 12 hours.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Prior to you sitting down on that night when you came in for what you described as a photo op, someone had put into this bill this provision so that AIG could get these $165 million worth of bonuses, right?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Yes.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: Who did that?

SEN. GRASSLEY: Well, it was said today who did it. Senator Dodd today I heard on television, I haven't talked to him personally, that he said he did it at the behest of the Treasury Department and the White House. So all I've got to go on is what he said on television.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: What do you think about that provision?

SEN. GRASSLEY: When you look at it, it reminds me of some mistake that we made back in October when we put a lid on compensation for corporate executives that were involved in getting this federal money, 500,000 (dollars), golden parachute. We assumed, at least I would assume, that compensation includes bonuses, but it wasn't expressed out in bonuses. So you can say in the writing of the restrictions on the use of TARP money and on executive compensation that the original mistake goes back to October when we didn't include every possible thing that could be included.

MS. VAN SUSTEREN: All right. Now, I heard the comment, the suicide comment. You want a do-over on that one, or you stand by that one?

SEN. GRASSLEY: I don't anticipate that anybody would take me seriously, that Chuck Grassley is going to advise people at AIG or any other corporation to commit suicide. But I can tell you this. I've been making that statement back since October 1st, 2008. I made it on the Senate floor in October and recently repeated it, and just now did it upset people. I stand by that for the simple reason that I think that we do not have a corporate responsibility in America that we ought to have because I have not heard one -- not one -- of these CEOs apologize for driving their corporation into the ground.

(End videotaped interview.)

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