The national debate on executive compensation reform picked up steam this week, as the Treasury Department laid out its principles for compensation reform, unveiled its Interim Final Rule on the compensation and corporate governance standards that apply for TARP recipients, and appointed Kenneth Feinberg as Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation (aka the Pay Czar).

The Obama Administration also announced its plan for "say-on-pay" legislation that would give the SEC the authority to require non-binding annual say-on-pay votes for all public companies, and legislation that will direct the SEC to promulgate rules that will require compensation committee members to meet independence standards similar to those applied to audit committee members under Sarbanes-Oxley.

Meanwhile, the Securities and Exchange Commission reiterated its plans for broad proxy disclosure reforms that will require companies to disclose more information on how they make compensation decisions.

And House Financial Service committee members debated Congress's role in regulating corporate pay during a hearing on compensation structure and systemic risk that included testimony by the SEC's Corporation Finance Deputy Director Brian Breheny and The Corporate Library's Nell Minow, among others.

It's too soon to tell how this will all shake out for public companies, but it's clear that it will be an interesting summer.

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