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Letter to the Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House of Representatives, and the Hon. Steny Hoyer, House Majority Leader - Chairs DeFazio, Doggett to Corporations: Put Workers First in Economic Recovery

Letter

By: Ruben Gallego, Barbara Lee, Judy Chu, Ted Lieu, Karen Bass, Lucille Roybal-Allard, Alan Lowenthal, Joe Courtney, Eleanor Norton, Val Demings, Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, Hank Johnson, Jr., Chuy Garcia, André Carson, Joe Kennedy III, John Sarbanes, Chellie Pingree, Haley Stevens, Brenda Lawrence, Ilhan Omar, Kilili Sablan, Albio Sires, Deb Haaland, Grace Meng, Jerry Nadler, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Brian Higgins, Lloyd Doggett II, Jared Huffman, Ro Khanna, Tony Cárdenas, Jimmy Gomez, Linda Sánchez, Mark Takano, Joe Neguse, Rosa DeLauro, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Alcee Hastings, Sr., Donna Shalala, Dave Loebsack, Danny Davis, John Yarmuth, Ayanna Pressley, Anthony Brown, Dan Kildee, Debbie Dingell, Angie Craig, Lacy Clay, Jr., Donald Norcross, Bill Pascrell, Jr., Dina Titus, Nydia Velázquez, Max Rose, Eliot Engel, Joyce Beatty, Tim Ryan, Peter DeFazio, Madeleine Dean, David Cicilline, Eddie Johnson, Peter Welch, Raul Grijalva, John Garamendi, Julia Brownley, Grace Napolitano, Norma Torres, Gil Cisneros, Katie Porter, John Larson, Jahana Hayes, Darren Soto, Debbie Wasserman Schultz, Sanford Bishop, Jr., Bobby Rush, Jan Schakowsky, Jim McGovern, Stephen Lynch, Jamie Raskin, Andy Levin, Rashida Tlaib, Betty McCollum, Emanuel Cleaver II, Frank Pallone, Jr., Bonnie Watson Coleman, Thomas Suozzi, Yvette Clarke, Adriano Espaillat, Paul Tonko, Marcy Kaptur, Suzanne Bonamici, Brendan Boyle, Mary Scanlon, Veronica Escobar, Donald McEachin, Pramila Jayapal, Marcia Fudge, Earl Blumenauer, Dwight Evans, Mike Doyle, Jr., Joaquin Castro, Gerry Connolly, Mark Pocan
Date: March 20, 2020
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: National Security Employment and Affirmative Action Health and Health Care Economy and Fiscal

Dear Speaker Pelosi and Majority Leader Hoyer:

We write to urge that any future legislation considered by the House to provide taxpayer assistance to large corporations put workers first and include essential corporate accountability provisions.

In 2008, the federal government provided hundreds-of-billions to Wall Street to respond to the financial crisis, awarding Wall Street a virtually no-strings-attached bailout. The results for Wall Street were tremendous -- a quick return to profitability, large executive compensation packages, major stock buy-back programs, and more.

For working families, the results were disappointing. For years, American families struggled to return to financial stability, and many still have not. Workers lost jobs, hard-earned pensions, benefits and never fully recovered.

There is no doubt that our current crisis is much different than the 2008 financial crisis. Our country is headed toward a recession that will impact everyone from Wall Street's senior executives to America's working families.

We fully support your commitment to ensuring any additional emergency response legislation puts relief for working families ahead of any aid to large corporations. To the extent that any direct assistance to particular industries is considered, we seek some accountability rather than a blank check. To that end, we urge that any legislation include appropriate guardrails for those corporations accepting taxpayer funding, including:

-Workers must come first. Corporations must use federal assistance to maintain their payrolls without demanding concessions on wages or benefits. Workers must be protected in the case of bankruptcy and no funds should be used for anti-union campaigns or to undermine collective bargaining efforts.
-Tax dollars must not be used to reward wealthy shareholders and executives. No stock buybacks, dividends, or executive bonuses until federal funds are repaid in full.
-Cap on senior executive pay. No corporate executives should make more than 50 times the pay of their median worker.
-Workers must have a seat at the table. Corporate recipients of public assistance must reserve at least one seat on their board for a representative elected by workers.
-Companies must be held accountable. An oversight authority must be established to ensure corporate compliance with these conditions. The oversight board must include worker representatives. CEOs should personally certify compliance and violations of the terms should trigger criminal penalties and claw-backs of public assistance.
-Taxpayers must have a stake in the company. Taxpayers should receive equity in return for assistance to ensure that once companies return to fiscal health, the public can benefit from its investment.


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