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The Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry was an ''ad hoc'' group of
United States cabinet The Cabinet of the United States is a body consisting of the vice president of the United States and the heads of the executive branch's departments in the federal government of the United States. It is the principal official advisory body to ...
-level and other officials that was formed by President Obama to deal with the financial bailout of automakers
Chrysler Stellantis North America (officially FCA US and formerly Chrysler ()) is one of the " Big Three" automobile manufacturers in the United States, headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan. It is the American subsidiary of the multinational automoti ...
and
General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...
. Based on an assessment that automobile manufacturing was a critical sector of the economy providing 3 to 4 million jobs for Americans, that liquidation was imminent for two of the three major U.S. automakers, and that the break ups would devastate the U.S. economy, the U.S. government became involved in the day-to-day management decisions of Chrysler and General Motors through the Task Force.Press roo
"Treasury Announces Auto Supplier Support Program: Program Will Aid Critical Sector of American Economy"
U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, March 19, 2009.
Myerson, Harold
"The Case for Keeping Big Three Out of Bankruptcy"
"The American Prospect", November 24, 008, retrieved December 7, 2008.
Press Roo

, U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, July 13, 2009.
The Presidential Task Force formed and started holding meetings in February 2009.David Shepardson and Gordon Trowbridge
"Auto task force taking shape"
February 21, 2009.
Press Roo

, U.S. Dept. of the Treasury, February 20, 2009
It reviewed financial and operational restructuring plans submitted by Chrysler and General Motors (GM) and made its own specific recommendations at cabinet level meetings to the President regarding the restructurings and the requests for funds from the companies. Recommendations also included directives on improving wage and benefit structures, and developing competitive
fuel efficient Fuel efficiency is a form of thermal efficiency, meaning the ratio of effort to result of a process that converts chemical potential energy contained in a carrier (fuel) into kinetic energy or work. Overall fuel efficiency may vary per device, wh ...
cars for the future. In March 2009, the Task Force recommended up to $5 billion in support for
automotive industry The automotive industry comprises a wide range of company, companies and organizations involved in the design, Business development, development, manufacturing, marketing, and selling of motor vehicles. It is one of the world's largest industry ...
suppliers, and by late May 2009, following the recommendations of the Task Force, the U.S. government had lent approximately $25 billion in total to the companies. At that time, it was estimated that GM might require $30 billion more to emerge from bankruptcy.Stephen Manning
"Meltdown 101: What took GM and Chrysler so long?"
Associated Press, May 29, 2009.
By mid-July 2009, both companies had restructured and emerged from bankruptcy. The Task Force was scaled back from "day to day" involvement to periodic "monitoring". According to an April 2014 report of the Special Inspector General of the Troubled Asset Relief Program, the U.S. government had lost $11.2 billion in its rescue of General Motors. The U.S. government spent $50 billion to bail out GM, meaning it recovered 77.6 percent of its investment amount.


Members and Official Designees

The Task Force was composed of the following cabinet members and public officials:Press roo

, U.S. Dept of the Treasury, February 20. 2009.


Members

*Co-chairs: **
Secretary of the Treasury The United States secretary of the treasury is the head of the United States Department of the Treasury, and is the chief financial officer of the federal government of the United States. The secretary of the treasury serves as the principal a ...
,
Tim Geithner Timothy Franz Geithner (; born August 18, 1961) is a former American central banker who served as the 75th United States Secretary of the Treasury under President Barack Obama from 2009 to 2013. He was the President of the Federal Reserve Bank o ...
** National Economic Council Director,
Larry Summers Lawrence Henry Summers (born November 30, 1954) is an American economist who served as the 71st United States secretary of the treasury from 1999 to 2001 and as director of the National Economic Council from 2009 to 2010. He also served as pres ...
*
Secretary of Transportation A secretary, administrative professional, administrative assistant, executive assistant, administrative officer, administrative support specialist, clerk, military assistant, management assistant, office secretary, or personal assistant is a wh ...
*
Secretary of Commerce The United States secretary of commerce (SecCom) is the head of the United States Department of Commerce. The secretary serves as the principal advisor to the president of the United States on all matters relating to commerce. The secretary rep ...
*
Secretary of Labor The United States Secretary of Labor is a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and as the head of the United States Department of Labor, controls the department, and enforces and suggests laws involving unions, the workplace, and all ot ...
*
Secretary of Energy The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when Pr ...
*Chair of the President’s
Council of Economic Advisers The Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) is a United States agency within the Executive Office of the President established in 1946, which advises the President of the United States on economic policy. The CEA provides much of the empirical resea ...
,
Christina Romer Christina Duckworth Romer (née Duckworth; born December 25, 1958) is the Class of 1957 Garff B. Wilson Professor of Economics at the University of California, Berkeley and a former chair of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Obama administra ...
*Director of the
Office of Management and Budget The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is the largest office within the Executive Office of the President of the United States (EOP). OMB's most prominent function is to produce the president's budget, but it also examines agency programs, pol ...
,
Peter R. Orszag Peter Richard Orszag (born December 16, 1968) is the CEO of Financial Advisory at Lazard. Before June 2019, he was the firm's Head of North American M&A and Global Co-Head of Healthcare. Orszag previously served as a Vice Chairman of Corporate ...
* Environmental Protection Agency Administrator *Director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change *Lead Auto Advisor at the Treasury Department,
Steven Rattner Steven Lawrence Rattner (born July 5, 1952) is a New York investment asset manager who served as lead adviser to the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in 2009.
*Senior Advisor on Auto Issues at the Treasury Department,
Ron Bloom Ron Bloom (born 1955) is an American economic advisor who served as a senior official in the Obama Administration from February 2009 to August 2011. This included working as the Assistant to the President for Manufacturing Policy between February 2 ...
Senior Advisor on Auto Issues at the Treasury Department, Harry Wilson


Official designees

Of the Members of the Presidential Task Force: *
Diana Farrell Diana Farrell is a banker and political advisor who is the founding President and Chief Executive Officer of the JPMorgan Chase Institute, a global think tank dedicated to delivering data-rich analyses and expert insights for the public good. Prev ...
, Deputy Director, National Economic Council *
Gene Sperling Eugene Benton Sperling (born December 24, 1958) is an American lawyer who was director of the National Economic Council and assistant to the president for economic policy under Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. He is the only person to s ...
, Counselor to the Secretary of Treasury *
Jared Bernstein Jared Bernstein (born 1955) is an American economist. He is a senior fellow at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities. From 2009 to 2011, Bernstein was the chief economist and economic adviser to Vice President Joe Biden in the Obama Admini ...
, Chief Economist to Vice President Biden * Jay Williams, Senior Advisor, Department of Labor *
Lisa Heinzerling Lisa or LISA may refer to: People People with the mononym * Lisa Lisa (born 1967), American actress and lead singer of the Cult Jam * Lisa (Japanese musician, born 1974), stylized "LISA", Japanese singer and producer * Lisa Komine (born 1978), J ...
, Senior Climate Policy Counsel to the
EPA Administrator The administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency is the head of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and is thus responsible for enforcing the nation's Clean Air and Clean Water Acts, as well as numerous other enviro ...
*
Austan Goolsbee Austan Dean Goolsbee (born August 18, 1969) is an American economist and writer. He is the Robert P. Gwinn Professor of Economics at the University of Chicago's Booth School of Business.
, Staff Director and Chief Economist of the
Economic Recovery Advisory Board The President's Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, originally the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board (PERAB), was an ad hoc panel of non-governmental experts from business, labor, academia and elsewhere that President of the United State ...
*Dan Utech, Senior Advisor to the
Secretary of Energy The United States secretary of energy is the head of the United States Department of Energy, a member of the Cabinet of the United States, and fifteenth in the presidential line of succession. The position was created on October 1, 1977, when Pr ...
* Heather Zichal, Deputy Director, White House Office of Energy and Climate Change * Joan DeBoer, Chief of Staff, Department of Transportation *
Rick Wade Rick Wade is a South Carolina businessman and politician. Personal life and education Wade holds a bachelor's degree in biology from the University of South Carolina, as well as an MPA from Harvard University. Career Wade worked as an analyst fo ...
, Senior Advisor,
Department of Commerce The United States Department of Commerce is an executive department of the U.S. federal government concerned with creating the conditions for economic growth and opportunity. Among its tasks are gathering economic and demographic data for bu ...


Staff

*
Brian Deese Brian Christopher Deese (born February 17, 1978) is an American economic and political advisor who is the 13th Director of the National Economic Council, serving under President Joe Biden. In this position, he additionally serves as the inaugu ...
, special assistant to the president for economic policy"The 31-Year-Old in Charge of Dismantling G.M."
by David E. Sanger, ''The New York Times'', May 31, 2009 (p. B1 6/1/09 NY ed.). Retrieved 6/1/09.


See also

*
Automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010 The automotive industry crisis of 2008–2010 formed part of the financial crisis of 2007–2008 and the resulting Great Recession. The crisis affected European and Asian automobile manufacturers, but it was primarily felt in the American automob ...
*
Corporate welfare Corporate welfare is a phrase used to describe a government's bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations. The definition of corporate welfare is sometimes restricted to direct government subsidie ...
*
Effects of the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis on the United States Beginning in the later half of 2008, a global-scale recession adversely affected the economy of the United States. A combination of several years of declining automobile sales and scarce availability of credit led to a more widespread crisis ...
* List of U.S. executive branch czars


References

{{Reflist, 2 United States Department of the Treasury Automotive industry in the United States 2008 in economics Great Recession in the United States 2000s economic history Task forces United States national commissions United States Presidential Task Forces Presidency of Barack Obama