House Committee Wants Auto Task Force Info

Maybe this is why Mr. Steve Rattner decided to quit the car czar post...

House committee wants GM, Chrysler documents
(7/17/09 AP via Yahoo Finance)

"A House committee asked the Obama administration Friday to release documents on the federal bailouts of General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC, seeking more details on decisions that led to the auto industry bankruptcies.

""They negotiated, they reviewed and they approved every aspect of the Chrysler and General Motors reorganization," Rep. Spencer Bachus, R-Ala., said of the White House. "We don't know how the president's auto task force reached its conclusion."

"The resolution, proposed by House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, underscored lingering resentment in Congress over the government's work to push GM and Chrysler into bankruptcy. The House approved legislation Thursday pressing GM and Chrysler to restore closed dealerships. Auto task force head Ron Bloom was scheduled to testify before a House panel next week as part of a two-day hearing.

"Committee chairman Barney Frank, D-Mass., said the resolution "does suffer from a certain selective memory approach," noting that the Bush administration provided the initial funding in late December to the companies. But he supported the request."

The House Committee the article mentions is the House Committee on Financial Services chaired by Barney Frank.

The lawmakers did nothing while Chrysler and GM were being dismantled and sold off, and now that's all done they want information. Better late than never, I suppose, although the resolution doesn't compel the White House to hand over the information. The White House could simply ignore, or tell the Congress it's none of their business just like the White House Press Secretary did a while ago:

"So, look, Congress certainly is involved in auto decisions obviously as it relates to setting fuel mileage standards that the President worked on last week, as well as proposals to create tax incentives to trade in older cars that aren’t doing as well on fuel mileage, to both increase auto sales and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. " (from the White House Press Briefings on 5/27/09)

So for the White House, the job for the Congress is to setting mileage standard that the President works over one weekend and approve cash for clunkers bill and climate bill. For more of Mr. Press Secretary's comment, see my post.

I'll keep an open mind to see if anything comes out of this, but I'm not holding my breath either.

Tweet