Monday, May 25, 2009

Sutton's 'Cash for Clunkers' Bill Gaining Steam


U.S. Representative Betty Sutton (D-OH) has been pushing legislation that would give people vouchers as an incentive to trade in their old used vehicles for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles. The vouchers would be worth between $3500-$4500 depending upon the MPG differential of the cars exchanged in the transaction.

Sutton, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, was successful a couple of weeks ago in having her legislation (H.R. 1550) be part of the larger climate change bill working its way through Congress. Now, she has decided to re-introduce the legislation back into the House as a stand-alone bill with Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) following suit by sponsoring similar legislation in that body (S. 1135). According to a press release from Sutton's office, the bill is aimed at "helping consumers purchase more fuel efficient vehicles, helping boost sales of our domestic auto and related industries and helping our environment."

Sutton's leadership on this issue is important for her constituents and politically shrewd--the 13th Congressional District, which stretches from Barberton to Akron to Lorain, has many people and businesses directly dependent upon the American auto industry. Five of the top six industry contributor categories in her 2oo8 reelection campaign were unions and labor PACs composed a majority of her PAC contributions.

Here is a summary of the legislation (posted in the Plain Dealer's Open Blog):

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Has anyone looked at the negative affect that this bill would have on the automotive aftermarket? This bill requires people to scrap all of the old cars that are traded in. Many of these old cars go to repair shops to be fixed. If they are scrapped, and not fixed, what happens to the repair shops?

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