[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2796 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2796

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             June 10, 2009

Mr. LaTourette (for himself, Mr. Gerlach, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Latta, Mr. 
    LoBiondo, Mr. McCotter, Mr. McHenry, Mr. McKeon, Mr. Nunes, Mr. 
 Simpson, Mr. Tiberi, Mr. Turner, Mr. Whitfield, Mr. Young of Florida, 
 Mr. Young of Alaska, Mr. Thompson of Pennsylvania, and Mrs. Bachmann) 
 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 penetrate communities 
        and sell automobiles nationally.
            (2) The manufacturers obtain the benefits from having a 
        national dealer network at no material cost to the 
        manufacturers.
            (3) Historically, automobile dealers have had franchise 
        agreement protections under State law.

SEC. 3. RESTORATION OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS.

    (a) Preservation of Rights.--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, no automobile manufacturer in which the Federal Government 
has an Federal financial interest or ownership interest may deprive an 
automobile dealer of its economic rights under a dealer agreement and 
must assume (or assign to a successor) each dealer agreement which is 
valid and in existence (and has not been lawfully terminated under 
applicable State law) before the date of the commencement of a case 
under title 11 of the United States Code by such automobile 
manufacturer.
    (b) Restoration of Franchise Agreements.--In order to preserve 
economic rights pursuant to subsection (a), an automobile manufacturer 
covered under this Act shall to the extent that a valid dealer 
agreement existing immediately before the date of the commencement of a 
case under title 11 of the United States Code by such automobile 
manufacturer is not assumed or assigned to an automobile manufacturer, 
shall require the new entity created in such case to enter into a new 
dealer agreement with the dealer whose agreement was not so assumed or 
assigned, and on the same terms as existed immediately before such 
date.
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