[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14680-14681]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1930
                  AMERICA'S DEALERSHIPS NEED A MIRACLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Manzullo) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MANZULLO. Mr. Speaker, in less than 48 hours the doors of 
hundreds of GMC dealers across the Nation and Chevy dealers will be 
closed. General Motors, now a State-owned enterprise with 60 percent of 
the stock belonging to the American people and with the directors 
appointed by the Auto Task Force, capriciously, willfully, unjustly 
sent out letters to so many of their GM dealers terminating their 
dealerships at end of this week, dealers who had been asked, in many 
cases, a few years before to invest millions of dollars of their own in 
order to promote the GM brand and dealers whose families go back three 
and four generations, some 85 to 90 years of continuous ownership of 
service to the community, and their doors will be shut by GM as a 
result of a letter. And the letter has completely changed the rules as 
to why they should stay open.
  Dealerships that are profitable, dealerships that add to the 
community, dealerships that pump billions of dollars into State and 
local sales tax coffers, closed by a letter, without explanation. How 
outrageous. So outrageous that the majority leader of the House of 
Representatives, Steny Hoyer, whom I joined in a press conference just 
a few hours ago, made these statements:
  ``Two Sundays ago, I was on a telephone call with the folks at the 
White House who are helping to make our policy with respect to this, 
and I asked them this: `What money does it save the manufacturer, 
General Motors or Chrysler, if you shut down the dealership?' The 
answer: Zero, zero, zero.''
  This is the official answer from the Auto Task Force to the majority 
leader of the United States House of Representatives.
  We sent letters to General Motors, we sent letters to the Auto Task 
Force, and all we get is silence. The destruction of a family business 
after 90 years does not deserve silence in America. It deserves the 
outrage of America saying, How dare you close down these dealerships 
when it cost you no money to keep them open?

[[Page 14681]]

  We asked General Motors and Chrysler, tell us the reasons why you're 
doing it. And do you know what they say? It's to lessen competition. 
That means Americans have less choice. That means prices get higher. 
And isn't it ironic that the American taxpayer, who has paid $60 
billion to keep open these companies, now will see his local dealership 
closed because the guys at GM want to lessen competition. What's good 
for General Motors isn't good for America today.
  A bill introduced by several Marylanders, including Chris Van Hollen 
and Frank Kratovil, H.R. 2743, solves the problem. We need that bill to 
pass by some miracle before Friday.

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