Pay czar says authority should not be expanded

Kenneth Feinberg, Special Master for TARP Executive Compensation, is pictured during an interview with Reuters at his Washington law office, October 26, 2009.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Obama administration's executive pay czar said his authority should not be expanded beyond setting compensation guidelines for seven banks and automakers that have received extraordinary taxpayer bailouts.

Kenneth Feinberg, the U.S. Treasury bailout program's special master for compensation, told lawmakers in prepared testimony scheduled for delivery on Wednesday that his authority should remain limited to the firms specified by the Treasury.

"The Federal government should not enter the business of micromanaging compensation practices beyond these seven companies by expanding my jurisdiction or broadening my discretionary authority," Feinberg said in testimony to the House of Representatives Oversight and Government Reform committee."

(Reporting by Rachelle Younglai, writing by David Lawder; Editing by Andrew Hay)