Chuck Grassley: “Martin Marietta's top executives are getting paid $16,272,000 under the deal. This isn't salary. It's a retirement…”

“Martin Marietta's top executives are getting paid $16,272,000 under the deal. This isn't salary. It's a retirement package for the senior executives. Some call it a ``golden parachute.'' By any definition, it's a very generous deal. DOD pays the top five executives, including Mr. Augustine, $3,552,909. Now, this isn't Mr. Augustine's salary, for example. These are just retirement benefits. He gets a lot more, but it comes out of another DOD pool of money. How many pools of money does DOD have for corporate pay. Mr. President, this tells me we need a cap. I am told that when the idea of a cap was first debated over in the Pentagon, a DCAA bureaucrat made this suggestion: Why not set the cap at $1 million? Mr. President, the Pentagon's weak-kneed attitude on executive pays tells me that a cap is mandatory. On March 5, 1996, the DOD inspector general, Ms. Eleanor Hill, came out in favor of a $250,000 cap. I thank her for doing that.”