Dodd says he was misled on bonus language

ENFIELD, Conn., March 20 (UPI) -- U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd said Friday he was misled by administration officials about how big an impact changing a bill's language would have on AIG bonuses.

The Connecticut Democrat said he was approached by Treasury Department officials about changing language in the $787 billion stimulus bill while it was in conference committee, and "I thought it was technical at the time."

Dodd previously this week said he added the bonus language that allowed the American International Group to pay out bonuses to executives and employees in the unit that led to the company's financial collapse. The $165 million in bonuses was distributed after AIG received about $170 billion in federal assistance. The change essentially blocked the federal government from recouping the bonuses.

Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner said on CNN Thursday that his staffers raised concern about "vulnerability" of the provision to lawsuits.

Dodd, attending an event in Enfield, Conn., said if he had known the purpose of the change "was to protect bonuses ... I would have flatly rejected it."

He said he was "disappointed" that those who requested the change "didn't have the courage to stand up" and admit they sought the language alterations.

"It seemed technical at the time," Dodd said. "Obviously, it's turned out to be something more than that, as we've learned."

If there's a silver lining , Dodd said, it's that "now everyone's getting religion on the issue ... (so) maybe out of all of this we'll finally see these kind of activities shut down once and for all.