Fed budget cut gets rid of ‘car czar’ job, cuts into auto programs

The White House and Congress closely adverted a partial government shutdown on Friday by agreeing to cut $38 billion from this year’s budget, which finances operations through September 30th. The deal to finance government operations for the next six months killed Obama administration’s ‘car czar’ job and cuts funds into at least two federal vehicle programs.

Getting rid of the four czar jobs made sense since all of them were vacant. Ron Bloom, who held the car czar job since late 2009, recently moved onto a new job as an adviser on manufacturing policy.

The deal also cuts $408 million from the $2.3 billion program that funds a range of efficiency initiatives to about $1.83 billion.

There is also a cut of $10 million in administrative costs to oversee the $25 billion Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing program.

– By: Stephen Calogera

Source: Detroit News