Big 3 told to submit detailed aid plan

Connecticut Senator Christopher Dodd said yesterday he and Massachusetts Representative Barney Frank are working on a plan to help the US auto industry survive until the spring, when the Obama administration can tackle the industry's financial crisis.

Dodd said he and Frank hope to have the "bridge plan" ready for Congress to consider when members go back to work on Dec. 8.

Dodd said President-elect Obama must become more engaged in finding a solution to Detroit's problems.

"We cannot lose the automobile industry," said Dodd, the Senate Banking Committee chairman. "That would be the end of manufacturing in America."

Top executives of General Motors Corp., Chrysler, and Ford Motor Co. went to Washington this week seeking roughly $25 billion but ran into so much opposition that Congress delayed voting on the bailout until the automakers prove they can be viable.

They must submit a plan to Congress by Dec. 2, followed by more hearings before any vote is taken.

Meanwhile, Democratic leaders yesterday ordered Detroit's Big Three automakers to submit what amounts to a detailed loan application to Congress so lawmakers can decide whether to give the beleaguered industry an emergency $25 billion lifeline.

In a letter to the auto executives released yesterday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid demanded a detailed accounting by Dec. 2 of the companies' financial condition and short-term cash needs, and how they would achieve long-term viability.

"The auto companies' shareholders, business partners, and prospective benefactors - the American people - deserve to see a plan that is accountable to taxpayers and that is viable for the long-term," Democrats Pelosi, of California, and Reid of Nevada, wrote.

The Democrats also called on the automakers to show how they would ensure the government would be reimbursed and share in profits, eliminate dividends, and lavish executive pay packages, meet fuel-efficiency standards, and address their healthcare and pension obligations to workers if they got the federal help.

The Bush administration sharply criticized the Democrats for departing Washington for a congressional recess without acting on a rescue for the carmakers.

"How could they leave town when the auto companies were just here [this] week saying some of them were on the verge of running out of cash?," Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said. "I think it's a very irresponsible attitude toward a very serious matter."

White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was "appalling that Congress decided to leave town without addressing a problem that they themselves said needed to be addressed."