White House Still Considering Options for Auto Rescue

By Sarah Borchersen-Keto, CCH Washington News Bureau, Contributing Author, the CCH Federal Banking Law Reporter, Dec. 18, 2008.

The White House is still considering a variety of options for helping the U.S. auto industry, including using funds from the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), as well as overseeing an orderly bankruptcy, White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said December 18.

President Bush will not allow a “disorderly collapse” of the auto companies, “that is not an option,” Perino said. She noted that “we’re nearing a conclusion, we’re narrowing options.”

Decisions

Asked if Bush could use an executive order to tap into TARP funds, Perino replied that “it’s one option that they’re looking at to see if that would be possible.”

As for the bankruptcy alternative, Perino noted that “there’s an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing…that would be one of the options.”

Regardless of which path the White House takes, all stakeholders will have to make “really tough decisions and concessions on their part in order to become viable companies in the future and to qualify for any taxpayer assistance, if there was going to be any,” Perino said.