[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 77 (Tuesday, May 19, 2009)]
[House]
[Page H5719]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                     CLOSING AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIPS

  (Mr. PAULSEN asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PAULSEN. Mr. Speaker, recently the President's automobile task 
force eliminated more than 3,000 Chrysler and GM dealerships 
nationwide. These dealerships are small businesses with an average of 
52 good-paying jobs each.
  So the actions by the Federal Government, not the private auto 
industry, just put over 150,000 people out of work with the wave of a 
government wand. Most troubling is that the government's decision on 
which dealers would close appears to be arbitrary, and the reasons are 
not being shared with the public.
  In my district, a long-time local dealer, Bill Mason's Chrysler Jeep 
in Excelsior, was given 30 days by the President's auto task force to 
shut its doors. Thirty days. It didn't matter that he built the 
business, owns the land and provides good-paying jobs.
  Mr. Speaker, it is wrong to let Washington bureaucrats pick winners 
and losers without public notice at the expense of thousands of jobs.

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