Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the US House of Representatives, has made clear that Congress will not press on with a bail-out of carmakers unless it can impose significant restrictions on General Motors, Ford and Chrysler.
Some curbs would be similar to those imposed on the financial services companies receiving government help, such as tougher standards on executive pay, a prohibition on “golden parachutes” and a requirement that the industry must repay taxpayers for any costs incurred by the rescue after a certain period.
It may be hard for Detroit to resist such demands. Bob Nardelli, chief executive of Chrysler, warned yesterday that it would be “very difficult” for the company to survive the downturn without government help, while Goldman Sachs said that General Motors alone might need $22bn (€17.5bn, ￡15bn) in federal aid.
Staffers on the House financial services committee have been busy drafting the terms of the rescue in recent days, before a hearing in Washington next week featuring the heads of Detroit's “Big Three”.
Democratic leaders insist that a bail-out must be tied to improved vehicle fuelefficiency. Ms Pelosi said: “It is essential for the domestic automobile manufacturing industry to re-emerge as a global, competitive leader in fuel-efficiency.”
參考譯文：
民主黨籍美國(guó)眾議院議長(zhǎng)南希?佩洛西(Nancy Pelosi)明確表示，除非能對(duì)通用汽車(General Motors)、福特(Ford)和克萊斯勒(Chrysler)施加大量限制，否則國(guó)會(huì)不會(huì)推進(jìn)對(duì)汽車制造商的紓困。
美國(guó)國(guó)會(huì)擬議中一些限制措施，將與對(duì)獲得政府援助的金融服務(wù)業(yè)企業(yè)的限制類似，例如更嚴(yán)格的高管薪酬標(biāo)準(zhǔn)，禁止簽署“金色降落傘”(Golden Parachutes)協(xié)議，以及要求該行業(yè)在一定時(shí)期之后必須向納稅人償還紓困所帶來的任何費(fèi)用。
美國(guó)的汽車制造商可能難以抵制上述要求。克萊斯勒首席執(zhí)行官鮑勃?納爾代利(Bob Nardelli)昨日警告，如果沒有政府援助，該公司將“很難”度過這場(chǎng)經(jīng)濟(jì)低迷。高盛(Goldman Sachs)則表示，僅通用汽車自身就可能需要220億美元的聯(lián)邦援助資金。
眾議院金融服務(wù)委員會(huì)(House Financial Services Committee)的工作人員近些天來一直忙于起草紓困條款。隨后，一場(chǎng)由底特律汽車業(yè)“三巨頭”各自掌門人擔(dān)任主角的聽證會(huì)將于下周在華盛頓召開。
民主黨領(lǐng)導(dǎo)人堅(jiān)稱，紓困必須與提高車輛燃油效率掛鉤。佩洛西表示：“對(duì)美國(guó)汽車制造業(yè)來說，在燃油效率方面重新成為有競(jìng)爭(zhēng)力的全球領(lǐng)導(dǎo)者是至關(guān)重要的?！?/FONT>
（轉(zhuǎn)載）
