GOP legislator: No lobbyists for GM, Chrysler

A Republican Congressman from California, Rep. Darrell Issa, is proposing an amendment to the financial regulation package working its way through Congress that would prohibit GM, Chrysler and other “government-owned” companies from employing lobbyists. The Detroit News reports:

Bardella noted that as a condition of the government takeover of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, they were barred from lobbying or making political contributions.

Issa’s amendment would apply that same condition to GM., which is majority owned by the U.S. government, as well as American International Group Inc., also majority-owned by the taxpayers and Ally Bank, the Detroit-based auto and mortgage company that is 56 percent owned by the government…

The ban would also apply to Chrysler — in which the U.S. government holds a 10 percent stake, Bardella said.

If the bill is passed, it might well run into a First Amendment problem in the courts; the right to petition the government for a redress of grievances surely includes the right to hire someone to speak on your behalf. But if they’re going to pass such a rule, it should be much broader than just those companies.

It should apply to every company that received TARP money and every company that has received emergency loans through the Fed, which has given trillions of dollars in emergency loans in exchange for collateral out of the public view. Of course, that would require that they actually identify those companies and what the collateral was, something the Fed has so far refused to do.