II 

111TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 1304 

To restore the economic rights of automobile dealers, and for other purposes. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 18, 2009 

Mr. GRASSLEY introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on the Judiciary 

A BILL 

To restore the economic rights of automobile dealers, and 

for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Automobile Dealer 

5 Economic Rights Restoration Act of 2009’’. 

6 SEC. 2. AUTOMOBILE DEALER ECONOMIC RIGHTS RES7 TORATION. 

8 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds the following: 

9 (1) Automobile dealers are an asset to auto10 mobile manufacturers that make it possible to serve 

11 communities and sell automobiles nationally. 


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1 (2) Forcing the closure of automobile dealers 

2 would have an especially devastating economic im3 pact in rural communities, where dealers play an in4 tegral role in the community, provide essential serv5 ices, and serve as a critical economic engine. 

6 (3) The automobile manufacturers obtain the 

7 benefits from having a national dealer network at no 

8 material cost to the manufacturers. 

9 (4) Historically, automobile dealers have had 

10 franchise agreement protections under State law. 

11 (b) RESTORATION OF ECONOMIC RIGHTS.— 

12 (1) IN GENERAL.—In order to protect assets of 

13 the Federal Government and better assure the via14 bility of automobile manufacturers in which the Fed15 eral Government has an ownership interest, or to 

16 which it is a lender, an automobile manufacturer in 

17 which the Federal Government has an ownership in18 terest, or which receives loans from the Federal Gov19 ernment, may not deprive an automobile dealer of its 

20 economic rights and shall honor those rights as they 

21 existed, for Chrysler LLC dealers, prior to the com22 mencement of the bankruptcy case by Chrysler LLC 

23 on April 30, 2009, and for General Motors Corp. 

24 dealers, prior to the commencement of the bank25 ruptcy case by General Motors Corp. on June 1, 


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1 2009, including the dealer’s rights to recourse under 

2 State law. 

3 (2) RESTORATION OF FRANCHISE AGREE4 MENTS.—In order to preserve economic rights pur5 suant to paragraph (1), at the request of an auto6 mobile dealer, an automobile manufacturer covered 

7 under this section shall restore the franchise agree8 ment between that automobile dealer and Chrysler 

9 LLC or General Motors Corp. that was in effect 

10 prior to the commencement of their respective bank11 ruptcy cases and take assignment of such agree12 ments. 

13 (3) CONSTRUCTION.—Except as set forth here14 in, nothing in this section shall be construed to 

15 make null and void— 

16 (A) the court approved transfer of substan17 tially all the assets of Chrysler LLC to New 

18 CarCo Acquisition LLC; or 

19 (B) a transfer of substantially all the as20 sets of General Motors Corp. that could be ap21 proved by a court after June 8, 2009. 

Æ 


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