‘He was not the host’: AIG threw itself a DC birthday party. Why was Richard Neal there?
The Springfield Democrat's primary challenger called the centennial celebration "insulting."
Less than a decade after the financial crisis, the insurance giant American International Group — or AIG — threw itself a 100th birthday party Monday night on Capitol Hill.
Held in the House Ways and Means Committee hearing room, the swank celebration included an open bar, an a cappella group, and a number of lawmakers, lobbyists, and AIG executives heralding the New York-based company’s achievements, as Politico first reported.
The event reportedly included no mention of the company’s ill-fated selling of credit default swaps or how it was rescued from a potentially catastrophic collapse by a $180 billion government bailout.
It did, however, include Rep. Richard Neal.
The longtime Massachusetts congressman, who chairs the Way and Means Committee, is under fire from the left for attending and speaking at the event, perhaps most notably from Holyoke Mayor Alex Morse, who is challenging Neal in the Democratic primary.
In a series of tweets Tuesday, Morse said it was “insulting” to see both Democrats and Republicans toast the company, after its risky lending was bailed out by American taxpayers.
Neal’s office is downplaying the Springfield Democrat’s involvement in the reception and contended that he merely provided a space for the AIG-hosted event. Representatives for both the congressman and AIG disputed the notion that Neal presided over the event, as Politico had reported. An invitation to the “centennial celebration reception” obtained by Boston.com lists AIG as the host and makes no mention of Neal.
Still, as the Ways and Means chair, Neal reportedly gave a short speech at the reception touting his powerful tax-writing committee’s Longworth building hearing room as the “premier address on Capitol Hill.”
“On this occasion of the centenary of this company, we’re all happy to be part of this birthday celebration,” he said, according to Politico.
According to aides, the congressman was at the reception — just one of the many similar events that are regularly held in the halls of Capitol Hill — for roughly 20 minutes and was among a bipartisan slate of roughly 10 speakers. AIG has roughly 400 employees in Massachusetts, including in the 1st District, which Neal represents.
“The Chairman made a brief appearance at the event and gave informal welcoming remarks,” William Tranghese, a spokesperson for the Neal, told Boston.com in a statement. “He was not the host.”
Tranghese said Tuesday that Neal had spent his time in Congress serving as financial sector “watchdog” to “ensure that investments made with American tax dollars will never again be wasted” and noted that former Rep. Barney Frank had vouched for his Western Massachusetts colleague’s role crafting the Dodd-Frank financial reform bill to “improve transparency and accountability in the financial system and end the ‘too big to fail’ rhetoric.”
“He worked with me along the way to make sure that big banks and corporations were not profiting off the backs of hard-working people,” Frank wrote in an op-ed last year, when Neal faced a 2018 primary challenger.
Nevertheless, Neal has faced heightened criticism from the left — particularly in the era of President Donald Trump — over everything from the self-described institutionalist‘s acceptance of corporate donations to his more moderate policy positions to his efforts to obtain Trump’s tax returns. (Neal is currently suing the administration for those records.)
Morse, a 30-year-old Holyoke native, has particularly highlighted the criticisms of Neal’s big-donor connections and said the reception this week was an example of the impetus for his campaign, which has sworn off corporate PAC money.
“I’m often asked why I’m running against a fellow Democrat,” Morse tweeted. “The answer is clear. This isn’t about being Democrat or not. It’s about whose side we are on. I’m on the side of working people, not corporations.”
https://twitter.com/AlexBMorse/status/1189170197065863168?s=20
Politico separately reported Tuesday that at least eight other House members (seven Democrats and one Republican), including Rep. Stephen Lynch, a fellow Bay State Democrat and member of the Financial Services Committee, were at the reception.
While it remains much smaller compared to its pre-2008 size, AIG has recently rebounded from its near-meltdown under new leadership. In 2013, the company repaid its $180 billion bailout to the government with an additional $22.7 billion return. In 2017, the Trump administration decided to undo AIG’s so-called “too big to fail” designation, freeing the company from more intensive oversight (the move was criticized at the time by some Democrats, including Sen. Elizabeth Warren).
The restructured insurer has also increased its political contributions through its corporate PAC in the past four election cycles — with an eye on Neal’s committee. So far this cycle, AIG has made more donations to Ways and Means members than any other congressional committee, according to the Center for Responsive Politics; Neal’s campaign received $2,500.
“We believe in the power of relationships to make a better world for everyone,” read the invitation to the centennial reception this week.
According to its disclosures, AIG’s lobbying efforts this year have focused on several retirement savings bills that are being considered by the Ways and Means Committee. In May, the House passed one of those bills — legislation sponsored by Neal that, among other things, would make it easier for workers to transfer their retirement plans when they change jobs — by a vote of 417-3.
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