Dealer Effort to Exclude Themselves from Finance Reform is Down to the Wire in the Senate

Dealer Effort to Exclude Themselves from Finance Reform is Down to the Wire in the Senate

President Obama jumped into the Finance Reform fray last week to ensure that the Republican alternative to the Democrat bill (S.3217) wasnt successful. Obama and the Senate Democrats prevailed with the Republican measure going down to defeat by a vote of 61-38.

This is the situation, as amendments like the one offered by Republican Senator Brownback (Kan.) to exclude dealers from the bill go forward next week on the floor of the Senate. This brings the entirety of NADAs extensively coordinated effort to pass the Brownback amendment down to the wire, meaning that the ongoing dealer grass roots effort to persuade senators on both sides of the aisle to sign on must remain vigilant.

Follow up communications with senators are important at this time with a simple, straight forward message:

Dealers dont extend credit to car buyers and dont belong in Finance Reform Legislation designed to regulate those that do!

Dealers arent banks and dealers arent finance companies. Dealers sell and service vehicles, providing an important value-added benefit to car buyers by arranging auto loans where the consumer routinely gets the best credit terms.

WANADA dealers are asked to keep the pressure on with Maryland and Virginia senators, delivering this message along with any anecdotal examples where the dealership helped car buyers get readily available, competitively rated financing. For good customers willing to take up the cause, NADA has prepared a customer letter (click here).

In Maryland, contact,

Sen. Ben Cardin (D-MD) http://cardin.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm or (202) 224-4524;

Sen. Barbara Mikulski (D-MD) http://mikulski.senate.gov/Contact/contact.cfm

or (202) 224-4654.

In Virginia, contact,

Sen. Mark Warner (D-VA) http://warner.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?p=Contact

or (202) 224-2023;

Sen. Jim Webb (D-VA) http://webb.senate.gov/contact.cfm or (202) 224-4024

For its part, WANADA continues to work with MADA, VADA and NADA on contacting Maryland and Virginia senators, having just this week met with Sen. Cardin who took a lot of time hearing about the dealer position on Finance Reform. WANADA also responded to an April 30 article by Steven Pearlstein in The Washington Post where the columnist argued that dealers should be included in the legislation (See inside box, above).

Please let us hear any response you recei

ve from the senators so it can be passed along to NADA. Contact Gerard Murphy at gm@wanada.org or 202-236-4646 or John ODonnell at jod@wanada.org or 202-669-8144