[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 10]
[House]
[Page 14079]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




              WHY ARE AUTOMOBILE DEALERSHIPS BEING CLOSED?

  (Mr. MORAN of Kansas asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute.)
  Mr. MORAN of Kansas. Mr. Speaker, I rise tonight to express confusion 
and concern. For much of the week, I have tried to find an answer to 
the question about why automobile dealerships across the country are 
being closed. I thought maybe this week I would return to Washington, 
D.C., and find the solution, that someone would know and provide an 
explanation. I cannot understand how closing automobile dealerships, 
those who sell automobiles, is advantageous to the bottom line, the 
profit of General Motors or Chrysler. This can't be a market-based 
decision. There must be some political consideration that is ongoing to 
encourage these dealerships to be closed.
  The closing of those dealerships is devastating to communities as 
well as the businesses that we are closing, and at the same time 
provide no economic improvement in the bottom line of our automobile 
manufacturers.
  So, Mr. Speaker, I again ask those of my colleagues and those at the 
White House, the automobile task force, is it a political consideration 
that is occurring to encourage General Motors and Chrysler to 
disenfranchise their franchisees or is there some market-based decision 
on which this is based? And yet no one can provide that answer.

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