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WASHINGTON (AP) U.S. Rep. Paul Hodes wants the government to investigate how the economic bailout money was spent.

Hodes wrote Timothy Geithner, who is likely to become the next treasury secretary, after news that former Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain awarded his executives bonuses last month, after reporting billions of dollars of losses. The bonuses also came just before Merrill Lynch was taken over by Bank of America, which has received billions of dollars of government bailout money.

Hodes says he is troubled by the Merrill Lynch reports and wonders whether bailout money that went to Bank of America ended up subsidizing the bonuses. Thain resigned this week from his new Bank of America job.

Hodes wants the Treasury Department to investigate companies that have received bailout money and require reports on how it was spent.

Meanwhile, in the House this week, Hodes and fellow Democrat Carol Shea-Porter voted for a resolution to withhold an additional $350 billion in bailout money. A similar bill failed in the Senate, so the money will not be withheld.