U.S. Rep. Gary PetersU.S. Rep. Gary Peters (D-Bloomfield Twp.) wants banks receiving federal money to restructure Chrysler’s multibillion debt.

Peters wrote the heads of four banks receiving money from the federal government’s Troubled Asset Relief Program: JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. Together these banks hold $6.8 billion secured debt from Chrysler and have been unwilling to restructure the debt.

 

Now Peters is asking them to get rid of most of the debt they and Chrysler are dealing with taxpayers money in their transactions with one another, according to The Detroit News.

“As one of the principal holders of Chrysler’s outstanding secured debt, I am writing to encourage you to participate fully in the process of negotiating with Chrysler to extinguish the vast majority of that debt,” Peters wrote to one CEO. “Your company is uniquely positioned to ensure that both of these important goals are realized.”

Chrysler was suppose to negotiated at least a two-thirds cut in its debt with banks by last Tuesday as a condition of the previous loan to it from the Treasury Department.