By Lorraine Woellert and John Hughes
Dec. 8 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. lawmakers are working to reach an agreement today on automaker aid as they decide conditions such as when to name a so-called “car czar” and whether to replace executives.
Congress is considering loans for at least the $14 billion General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC say they need to keep operating through March 31. The legislation may be introduced tomorrow, lawmakers said. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd predicted a plan would have the votes to pass. GM was trading up 22 percent in Germany.
“None of us want to wake up on Jan. 1 and discover we don’t have an industry to save,” Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Dodd said GM Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner should be replaced as a condition for the aid. “You’ve got to consider new leadership,” Dodd said. Wagoner, he said, “has to move on.”
GM spokesman Steve Harris said he didn’t interpret Dodd’s comments as making Wagoner’s exit a condition for aid, adding that the company management, employees and dealers “all feel like Rick is the right guy to lead us at this difficult time.”
President-elect Barack Obama said that if the management team “that’s currently in place doesn’t understand the urgency of the situation and is not willing to make the tough choices and adapt to these new circumstances, then they should go.”
“If, on the other hand, they are willing, able and show themselves committed to making those important changes, then that raises a different situation,” Obama said at a Chicago news conference yesterday.
Shares Surge
Detroit-based GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, was trading at the equivalent of $4.96 as of 9:23 a.m. in Frankfurt, up 88 cents compared with the close on Dec. 5. Dearborn, Michigan- based Ford Motor Co., the No. 2, advanced 53 cents, or 19 percent, to $3.25.
Michigan Senator Carl Levin said he expects there to be an administrator to be selected during the next 60 to 90 days who will make sure that “there will be real oversight.”
A draft proposal from the White House would create a “financial viability advisor” within the U.S. Commerce Department that would be responsible for helping automakers achieve a plan for long-term financial success.
The adviser could provide financing to an automaker to keep operating for no more than three and a half months. The financing would be supplied only if the adviser concludes the automaker will otherwise go bankrupt during the period of negotiating the plan and if stakeholders are negotiating in good faith.
Pelosi Drops Objections
The prospect for aid improved Dec. 5 when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, dropped objections to the Bush administration’s preference for tapping some of $25 billion in Energy Department loans for the assistance. The loans authorized in the 2007 energy bill had been targeted for building fuel-efficient vehicles.
The administration of President George W. Bush has held “constructive discussions” with members of Congress, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Dec. 6. “We hope to continue to make progress toward assistance for the automakers” provided public money can be safeguarded.
Pelosi said she expects to bring legislation to the floor this week. The Senate plans to return to work today and the House reconvenes tomorrow.
Passage is uncertain. Senator Richard Shelby of Alabama said he supports a filibuster, a procedural tactic which stalls legislation to allow endless debate. Sixty votes are needed to end filibusters.
“I think we need to debate it and that’s what filibusters allow and this week would be a good time to do it,” Shelby said on “Fox News Sunday.”
Alabama Republican Senator Jeff Sessions said on “Face the Nation” he has “doubts it will pass, but it’s a lot closer than it was” when automakers were asking for $34 billion.
To contact the reporters on this story: Lorraine Woellert in Washington at lwoellert@bloomberg.net; John Hughes in Washington at Jhughes5@bloomberg.net.
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