500 dealers at stake
Boehner stands to replace Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., as House speaker if Republicans take control of the chamber in the Nov. 2 congressional elections.
About 500 GM dealerships that were tagged for termination last year as part of GM's bankruptcy proceeding will see their sales and service agreements expire Sunday, Oct. 31. The federal government owns 61 percent of the automaker.
GM, in an e-mailed statement, said it has no plans to extend the wind down agreements' deadlines with dealers.
"GM and its dealers have made significant progress over the last several months with a clear focus on selling great cars and trucks and providing a superior retail experience," the statement said.
"An extension would only divert our collective attention at a critical time and would ignore the independent decisions of arbitrators and individual settlement agreements between GM and its dealers."
Treasury spokesman Mark Paustenbach declined to comment.
The Office of the Special Inspector General for the U.S. Troubled Asset Relief Program has said it is investigating possible illegal misconduct in more than 2,000 GM and Chrysler dealer terminations by the automakers and the administration.
The investigation is a follow-up of a July audit performed by the office, headed by former federal prosecutor Neil Barofsky.
Barofsky's office has not said who it is investigating or what specific actions are involved. Nor have investigators said when they expect their work to be completed.
Doubts about savings
The audit raised doubts about the automakers' estimates of cost savings from the dealer cuts. It also expressed concern about GM's lack of documentation on its decision-making process for dealer cuts and the company's deviation from its stated criteria for dealer terminations.
LaTourette had scheduled a 1 p.m. news conference today in the Cleveland area with several auto dealers, including Alan Spitzer, a leader of a group of rejected dealers called the Committee to Restore Dealer Rights.
Last year, LaTourette was the first to introduce a bill to reverse the 2,000 dealer terminations. The legislation, which Spitzer's group pushed, ultimately led to a law setting up dealer arbitration.