Capitol Hill Takes on Executive Compensation and Corporate Governance

Originally published June 17, 2010

The current global financial crisis, government bailouts and the ensuing contraction of the credit markets have led to calls for increased regulation and government oversight of Wall Street. The U.S. Senate weighed in on the debate when, on May 20, 2010, it passed the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 (the RAFSA).¹ The RAFSA follows the December 2009 passage of the U.S. House of Representatives' Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the House bill).² The process of reconciling the RAFSA and the House bill began on June 11, and the conferees expect to present legislation for President Obama's signature before the July recess. Negotiations between House and Senate conferees over corporate governance provisions began on June 16. While the House bill contained far fewer corporate governance-related provisions, the base text of the bill used in legislative conference contains the same governance provisions