A counter-proposal by Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee offers a range of changes to the bill currently before the Senate. Automotive News reports that the Corker proposal would have carmakers slashing union worker wages to non-union levels and converting two-thirds of the companies' bondholder debt to equity.
As the alternatives offered by the GOP gain steam, support for the Democrat-backed bill that passed the house yesterday is faltering.
“It is still unclear at this point whether there are the necessary 60 votes in the Senate required for the bill’s passage,” said Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli in a memo to employees, according to the Detroit Free Press.
If the bill does not pass the senate this week, it will have to wait for the next Congress to take up the matter in January. Though Democrats will hold more seats, gained in the recent elections, in the next Congress the case may not improve much - only 58 seats are expected to be held by Democrats, still two votes short of the necessary 60 to secure passage.
That means that even with complete solidarity among the Democrats, there will have to be some aisle-crossing on the part of the Republicans to get a bill through to the President's desk. And to do that, the final will almost certainly have to reach a compromise between the current House-passed bill and GOP proposals.
