Levin criticizes Obama’s auto panel

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) criticized the Obama administration’s delay in choosing a group to oversee the auto restructuring, saying that it has made a key deadline more challenging to meet.

General Motors and Chrysler by Tuesday must submit their plans to reorganize as part of the deal that gives them $17.4 billion in federal loans. The companies are negotiating with their bondholders and the United Auto Workers to finalize their reorganization plans.

{mosads}Levin said that the new administration panel will now have to work overtime for the companies, unions and bondholders to meet the next deadline, March 31, which is when the companies must show progress on their plans.

“What is critical is not whether we have a single auto czar or an advisory panel, but whether the advisers understand the importance of manufacturing to our industrial base and our economy and the critical role that the U.S. auto industry plays in our manufacturing base,” the senator said.

The auto industry and its supporters on Capitol Hill for weeks have been wondering when Obama would appoint a “car czar” to oversee the restructuring. Speculation had centered on Steve Rattner, a private equity executive.
 
Instead, President Obama will appoint a panel led by top administration officials. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and chief White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers will be part of the Presidential Task Force on Autos that will watch over the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, according to the Associated Press.

The task force’s members will come from various federal agencies. Geithner will serve as the ultimate authority over the loan agreements.

Ron Bloom, a restructuring expert who has worked with the U.S. Steelworkers and financial firm Lazard Freres, will join the Treasury Department as an adviser but will not serve as the czar in charge of the program.

Levin’s brother, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.), praised the Obama administration’s course.

Levin said that the inclusion of the president’s senior economic advisers in the task force is “a signal of the importance he gives to its role and responsibility.”

“They have the leverage necessary working with all of stakeholders to make the difficult decisions necessary to continue the rejuvenating of a domestic auto industry that is vital to our manufacturing base, future technologies, ending the dependence on foreign oil and millions of good-paying jobs,” Sander Levin said.

David Axelrod, one of Obama’s senior advisers in the White House, stressed last weekend the need for a “thriving auto industry” in the United States.

“There are millions of jobs that rely on it, not just in the auto industry itself, not just in the Big Three, but in all kinds of related spinoff businesses. So we have a vested interest in seeing the auto industry continue,” Axelrod said on “Fox News Sunday.”

President Bush approved loans for Chrysler and GM in December over the objections of Republicans in Congress, who led an effort to block an auto bailout.