Dear Colleague:

As you may be aware, leaders of President Barack Obama's Task Force on the Auto Industry have recently pushed Chrysler and General Motors to drastically reduce their dealer networks. The task force is driving the restructuring of both companies, which are planning to close plants and cut jobs all across the nation.

We write to express our serious concerns with this rapid and potentially disorderly elimination of thousands of dealerships. Each dealership creates an average of 52 neighborhood jobs and these positions typically pay twice the national average as other retail-sector jobs. This action, if implemented, could put approximately 150,000 people out of work.

Chrysler plans to drop at least 800 dealers and renegotiate franchise agreements with many of the remaining 2,400 dealers. Surviving dealers will be identified in a filing that may come as soon as Thursday, but even those on the list could face an uncertain future.

General Motors expects to begin notifying its independent dealers this week about its game plan to reduce its network of 6,246 U.S. stores by 42% to 3,605 by the end of next year.

Please join us in asking the Auto Industry Task Force to provide more transparency and somehow justify the forced closure of thousands of dealerships. If you would like to sign onto this letter, please contact Hasan Sarsour in Rep. Daniel B. Maffei's office at Hasan.Sarsour@mail.house.gov or at 5-3701.

Sincerely,

Daniel B. Maffei Member of Congress

Christopher Lee Member of Congress