Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Thursday that AT&T's promise to provide employees with bonuses upon the signing of the Republican tax bill is just a "PR stunt."
The telecommunications company said in a press release on Wednesday that it would give bonuses to over 200,000 workers once President Donald Trump signs the GOP tax bill into law, according to CNBC. Its rival Comcast made a similar vow.
"I think they are doing it as a RP stunt because… these are one-time bonuses," Van Hollen said on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" Thursday. "That's not what was promised. What was promised was a $4,000 a year pay increase into the base. That is why you see union members going to these corporations and saying, 'look, thanks for the one-time bonus, but that is not what was promised as part of this tax cut.'"
Although the Justice Department blocked AT&T's merger with Time Warner last month, the tax bill's lower corporate tax rate and the FCC recent decision to repeal net neutrality means that AT&T still stand to benefit from the current administration.
"At the same time you see those one-time bonuses. In the last couple weeks you see reported $87 billion in stock buyback. That's money going to the shareholders. I want to remind people that 35 percent of those stockholders are foreign stockholders.
"So in the year 2019, $48 billion is going to go into the pockets of foreign stockholders, coming out of the pockets of millions of middle class taxpayers. That is not America first. People are on to this. And the more they see it, the more they'll hate it."
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