Announcement by the Acting Chair

Floor Speech

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Madam Chair, I am a second-generation auto dealer. I have been in the industry for most of my life. I know it well.

As such, my one-word amendment will fix Senate language that puts unintentional new burdens on all rental car establishments.

My amendment will clarify the Senate language so it only applies to actual rental car companies, like it is supposed to.

The definition in the underlying bill, which the House never passed, is so broad that it sweeps up dealers who offer loaner vehicles or rentals as a convenience for their customers. My amendment leaves the regulations on all rental car companies, which compromise 99 percent of the market, intact.

The Senate language is flawed because it simply is not tailored to small business. For example, under the bill, vehicles would be grounded for weeks or months for such minor compliance matters as an airbag warning sticker that might peel off the sun visor or an incorrect phone number printed in the owner's manual. The regulations in this bill are not proportionate.

Another problem is that this bill favors multinational rental car companies at the expense of small businesses. This bill will regulate a small-business dealer with a fleet of five loaner vehicles the same way it would regulate a massive rental car company with hundreds of thousands of vehicles in their fleet.

The bill even allows large rental car companies additional compliance time, which further disadvantages small businesses. Madam Chair, large businesses have regulatory and legal staffs available on-hand to help with this burden, and they have the capital to pay millions of dollars in regulatory compliance costs.

The average small-business owner, however, is his or her own legal and regulatory staff. Without my amendment, this bill would impose new government inspections, additional recordkeeping requirements, and new penalties up to $15 million on small businesses.

The Senate bill also gives the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration the authority to add more regulatory burdens as appropriate, and that is too open-ended.

Without my amendment, this bill could make it impractical for small-business dealers to provide loaner or rental cars to their customers because it mandates vehicles be grounded for minor compliance matters with a minimal impact on safety, and that is not what Congress' intent is or should be.

Madam Chair, in tax law, employment law, and other areas, Congress has recognized the difference between big business and small business. Let's not regulate our Main Street businesses like multinational corporations. Frankly, Main Street is hurting enough as it is.

Vote ``yes'' on the Williams amendment.

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Madam Chair, I yield myself the balance of my time.

Auto dealers, much like us here in Washington, D.C., have a reputation to uphold. No auto dealer in his right mind would loan a vehicle to his customers that is unsafe to drive or operate. Auto dealers should not have to ground all of their loaner vehicles because of minor issues like a sticker that might peel off the sun visor because something was misspelled in the owner's manual. Auto dealers want to provide great service and be able to loan their customers vehicles so they can go to work, drop their kids off at school, go to the grocery store, and visit the doctor. These small business owners should not be regulated like huge, multinational car rental agencies.

I urge Members to support my amendment and protect small businesses.

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