Rattner: U.S. Told GM to Fund Pensions Selectively

General Motors Co. was ordered by the federal task force overseeing its bankruptcy in 2009 not to commit money to a pension fund for certain salaried employees, according to Steve Ratter, who headed the government's restructuring team.

Rattner told a U.S. House of Representatives hearing in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday that the task force decided GM should fully fund pension obligations for hourly employees who worked at its part division before the unit was spun off as Delphi Corp. in 1999.

But Rattner says the government concluded it was "not commercially reasonable" to do the same for salaried Delphi employees in the same circumstances. He didn't explain the task force's thought process. But he noted that the decision was among many difficult choices made under a "crisis atmosphere" to save GM.

Skeptical House Republican complain that the task force played favorites and meddled too deeply in GM's business decisions.