Just 24 hours before Chrysler and General Motors must present their viability plans to the United States government, the White House has ruled that a team led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will oversee the industry’s restructuring – not the so-called “car czar” that had been favored early on.
The Presidential Task Force on Autos, as the team is being called, will draw officers from a number of Cabinet agencies and departments. The team will be co-chaired by Geithner and Larry Summers, the director of the National Economic Council.
The Task Force will have the authority to repeal the aid loans should the automakers not make sufficient progress towards their restructuring plans by March 31.
The Task Force will have union representation, as well. Ron Bloom, a special assistant to the president of the United Steelworkers union, will take the position of a senior adviser at the Treasury Department in order to be a member of the team.
Organization of the Task Force was a long-delayed Washington project that has met criticism from Michigan Senator Carl Levin, a Democrat representing the Detroit area.
“The panel will have to work overtime to try to bring all of the stakeholders together to achieve the plan for financial viability required on March 31,” Levin told the Detroit News. “They must also understand that every country in the world that has a domestic auto industry has already taken significant steps to safeguard the survival of their auto industry.”
