(CNN) -- Top Democratic lawmakers called Tuesday for high taxes on the controversial AIG bonuses, as new details emerged on who got those bonuses.



Congress is looking at ways to deal with the outrage surrounding AIG's controversial bonuses.



"My colleagues and I are sending a letter to [AIG CEO Edward] Liddy informing him that he can go right ahead and tell the employees that are scheduled to get bonuses that they should voluntarily return them," Sen. Charles Schumer said on the Senate floor. "Because if they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of [the money] ... so it is returned to its rightful owners, the taxpayers."



Schumer's comments came the same day New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo confirmed in a letter to Congress that AIG paid 73 employees bonuses of more than $1 million each.



Cuomo also wrote that 11 of the employees no longer work for the company. The largest bonus paid was $6.4 million; seven other people also received more than $4 million each.



"Until we obtain the names of these individuals, it is impossible to determine when and why they left the firm and how it is that they received these payments,"  Cuomo wrote to a congressional committee.



AIG has been under fire for awarding seven-figure bonuses to employees while being kept afloat by more than $170 billion from the U.S. government's financial bailout.



The company insists the payouts are needed to keep talented executives on the payroll, but public anger over the moves has prompted Congress and the Obama administration to seek some ways to reclaim the money.  Watch Sen. Schumer vow to recoup the bonuses »



Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid announced on the Senate floor Tuesday that the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee will pursue a legislative fix in such a way that the "recipients of those bonuses will not be able to keep all their money -- and that's an understatement."



Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, will propose a special tax within the next 24 hours, Reid said.



"I don't think those bonuses should be paid," Baucus said Tuesday.



The special-tax idea was first floated Monday by Sen. Chris Dodd, chairman of the Committee on Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs.



"We have a right to tax," the Connecticut Democrat told CNN. "You could write a tax provision that's narrowly crafted only to the people receiving bonuses."  Watch why Americans have a right to be angry »



At an unrelated hearing Tuesday at which IRS Commissioner Douglas Shulman was testifying, Baucus asked the nation's top tax official, "What's the highest excise tax we can impose that's sustainable in court?"



Shulman did not respond directly, but Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, chimed in to suggest the tax could be as high as "90 percent."



President Obama on Monday expressed dismay and anger over the bonuses to executives at AIG.



"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama told politicians and reporters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, where he and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were unveiling a package to aid the nation's small businesses.



Obama said he will attempt to block bonuses for AIG, payments he described as an "outrage."  See a snapshot of facts, attitudes and analysis on the recession »



"Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165 million in extra pay. I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"



Obama was referring to the bonuses paid to traders in AIG's financial products division, the tiny group of people who crafted complicated deals that contributed to the shaking of the world's economic foundations.  Watch Obama say he's outraged by bonuses »



The president said he has asked Geithner to "pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole." Obama said he would work with Congress to
What amount of bonuses did AIG pay? What company gave 73 million-dollar bonuses? Who heads the Senate Finance Committee? Who is investigating the bonuses? What will the new law put a tax on? Who is the senate majority leader?
more than $1 million each. AIG Max Baucus, Congress AIG bonuses, Harry Reid
question: What amount of bonuses did AIG pay?, answer: more than $1 million each. | question: What company gave 73 million-dollar bonuses?, answer: AIG | question: Who heads the Senate Finance Committee?, answer: Max Baucus, | question: Who is investigating the bonuses?, answer: Congress | question: What will the new law put a tax on?, answer: AIG bonuses, | question: Who is the senate majority leader?, answer: Harry Reid