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Big Three pleads; Senate skeptical

Pre-negotiated bankruptcy debated

JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON — Desperate U.S. automakers ran into fresh obstacles from skeptical lawmakers Thursday as they appealed with rising urgency — and a new dose of humility — for a $34 billion bailout. Without help, said one senator, “we’re looking at a death sentence.”

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Auto executives, from left, at Thursday’s Senate hearing on Capitol Hill: General Motors’ Richard Wagoner, UAW’s Ron Gettelfinger, Ford’s Alan Mulally and Chrysler’s Robert Nardelli.

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With lawmakers in both parties pressing the automakers to consider a pre-negotiated bankruptcy — something they have consistently shunned — the Big Three were contemplating a government-run restructuring that could yield results similar to bankruptcy, including massive downsizing, in return for the bailout billions. But there was no assurance they could get even that.

And that wasn’t all the unwelcome news. Congressional officials said one leading proposal — to tap an already approved fund set aside for making cars environmentally efficient — wouldn’t give the carmakers nearly as much money as they say they need.

The auto executives pleaded with lawmakers at a contentious Capitol Hill hearing — their second round in less than a month — for emergency aid before year’s end. But with time running out on the current Congress, skepticism about the bailout appeared to be as strong as ever.

“In all due respect, folks, I don’t think there’s faith that the next ... three months will work out, given the past history,” said Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y.

“No thinking person thinks that all three companies can survive,” said Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee.

Chris Dodd, chairman of the Banking Committee, was the senator who spoke of a death sentence — though he also said, “We’re not going to leave town without trying” to help.

The auto executives are to make their case at a House hearing today, and Congress could take up rescue legislation next week in an emergency session.

But Democratic congressional leaders were leaning on the White House to act on its own. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., wrote to President George W. Bush on Thursday asking him, as they have repeatedly, to use the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund to help the auto makers — something the administration has consistently refused to do. They argued that such a course was justified because of the potential for grave harm to the financial sector in the event of a carmaker collapse.

Bush, too, was skeptical.

In an interview with NBC News, he said, “No matter how important the autos are to our economy, we don’t want to put good money after bad. In other words, we want to make sure that the plan they develop is one that ensures their long-term viability for the sake of the taxpayer.”

President-elect Barack Obama was keeping his distance, and Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., who has been dealing with both the financial bailout and the auto rescue proposal, said, “He’s going to have to be more assertive than he’s been.” Frank is chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, which will conduct today’s hearing.

Repentant after a botched first crack at bailout pleas, the executives from General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC all agreed during Thursday’s session that a multibillion-dollar bailout deal would include a supervisory government board that could order major overhauls of the companies if deemed necessary for survival.

United Auto Workers union President Ron Gettelfinger, aligned with the industry in pressing for the aid, told senators that any kind of bankruptcy, even a prepackaged one, was not “a viable option.” Gettelfinger said consumers would not buy autos from bankrupt companies, no matter the terms of the arrangement.

He also warned that without action by Congress: “I believe we could lose General Motors by the end of this month.” He said the situation was dire and time was of the essence.

The Big Three CEOs told the senators they hoped to make amends for past blunders. “We made mistakes, which we’re learning from,” GM chief Rick Wagoner said. Ford CEO Alan Mulally also acknowledged big mistakes, saying his company’s approach once was “If you build it, they will come.”

“We produced more vehicles than our customers wanted, then slashed prices,” he said. But as a result of these past mistakes, “we are really focused,” he said.

The Bush administration wants the aid to be drawn from an existing $25 billion program to help the industry retool its plants to make their vehicles more fuel-efficient.

But congressional budget analysts have privately told top Democrats that would yield only $10 billion to $15 billion in short-term loans. Congressional officials described that finding only on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose it.

The auto executives made the trip from Detroit in new-model hybrid autos made by their respective companies, two weeks after a first appeal for $25 billion in which they were chided for flying on private jets to beg for money.

Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli promised that his company, recipient of a previous government-subsidized rescue loan in the 1970s that it repaid, would reimburse taxpayers by 2012 this time and would devote itself to manufacturing “fuel-efficient cars and trucks that people want to buy.”

Asked whether the carmakers would agree to a setup like the one established for Chrysler’s 1979 bailout, with a federal restructuring trustee who had some of the same powers as a bankruptcy court, all three executives indicated they would. Ford’s Mulally added, “I probably need to think about that a little bit. It sounds right, but I just don’t know all of the implications.”

Lawmakers still complained of sticker shock, noting that the bailout’s price tag had jumped $9 billion since the trio last appeared just two weeks ago.

Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Banking Committee, pressed the automakers to explain why, and explain how the sum would not simply “prop up a failed business model for a few months ... and how are you going to pay it back?”