[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1304 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1304

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


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             June 18, 2009

 Mr. Grassley introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
               referred to the Committee on the Judiciary

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 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. AUTOMOBILE DEALER ECONOMIC RIGHTS RESTORATION.

    (a) Findings.--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 automobile 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.
    (b) Restoration of Economic Rights.--
            (1) In general.--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.
            (2) Restoration of franchise agreements.--In order to 
        preserve economic rights pursuant to paragraph (1), at the 
        request of an automobile dealer, an automobile manufacturer 
        covered under this section 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.
            (3) Construction.--Except as set forth herein, nothing in 
        this section shall be construed to make null and void--
                    (A) the court approved transfer of substantially 
                all the assets of Chrysler LLC to New CarCo Acquisition 
                LLC; or
                    (B) a transfer of substantially all the assets of 
                General Motors Corp. that could be approved by a court 
                after June 8, 2009.
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