[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2743 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2743

  To restore the economic rights of automobile dealers, and for other 
                               purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                              June 8, 2009

 Mr. Maffei (for himself, Mr. Kratovil, Mr. Van Hollen, Mr. Hoyer, Mr. 
McMahon, Ms. Sutton, Mr. Bartlett, Mr. Hall of New York, Mr. Posey, Mr. 
Heinrich, Mr. Paulsen, Ms. Shea-Porter, Mr. Manzullo, Mr. DeFazio, and 
Mr. Davis of Alabama) introduced the following bill; which was referred 
                 to the Committee on Financial Services

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To restore the economic rights of automobile dealers, and for other 
                               purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Automobile Dealer Economic Rights 
Restoration Act of 2009''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) Automobile dealers are an asset to automobile 
        manufacturers that make it possible to serve communities and 
        sell automobiles nationally.
            (2) Forcing the closure of automobile dealers would have an 
        especially devastating economic impact in rural communities, 
        where dealers play an integral role in the community, provide 
        essential services and serve as a critical economic engine.
            (3) The manufacturers obtain the benefits from having a 
        national dealer network at no material cost to the 
        manufacturers.
            (4) Historically, automobile dealers have had franchise 
        agreement protections under State law.

SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS.

    (a) In order to protect assets of the Federal Government and better 
assure the viability of automobile manufacturers in which the Federal 
Government has an ownership interest, or to which it is a lender, an 
automobile manufacturer in which the Federal Government has an 
ownership interest, or which receives loans from the Federal 
Government, may not deprive an automobile dealer of its economic rights 
and shall honor those rights as they existed, for Chrysler LLC dealers, 
prior to the commencement of the bankruptcy case by Chrysler LLC on 
April 30, 2009, and for General Motors Corp. dealers, prior to the 
commencement of the bankruptcy case by General Motors Corp. on June 1, 
2009, including the dealer's rights to recourse under State law.
    (b) In order to preserve economic rights pursuant to subsection 
(a), at the request of an automobile dealer, an automobile manufacturer 
covered under this Act shall restore the franchise agreement between 
that automobile dealer and Chrysler LLC or General Motors Corp. that 
was in effect prior to the commencement of their respective bankruptcy 
cases and take assignment of such agreements.
    (c) Except as set forth herein, nothing in this Act is intended to 
make null and void:
            (1) the court approved transfer of substantially all the 
        assets of Chrysler LLC to New CarCo Acquisition LLC; or
            (2) a transfer of substantially all the assets of General 
        Motors Corp. that could be approved by a court after the date 
        of introduction of this Act.
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