After watching for months from the sidelines as the Obama administration steered Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy and General Motors Corp. into a painful restructuring, lawmakers are seeking a greater role in blunting the impact of the industry’s restructuring on dealers, communities and bondholders.

On Friday, a group of 36 House members called the actions of the White House auto industry task force “more than troubling,” in a letter they sent to President Obama. The letter’s signers were mostly Republicans, but several prominent Democrats also put their names on it.

The effort, which included a meeting with a member of the task force, was headed by Republican Steven C. LaTourette and Democrat Dennis J. Kucinich , both of Ohio. Powerful Michigan Democrat John Conyers Jr. also took part.

LaTourette complained that the task force lacked transparency and was not responsive to Congress’ concerns. “Dodge pioneered the Stealth car, and I fear that’s been the motto in this process,” he said.

In recent days, lawmakers also have moved to give affected car dealers more time to wind down their operations, and to boost demand for Detroit’s products.

Congress ceded much of its influence over the automakers’ fate back in December, when Senate talks over a House-passed bailout of the two companies collapsed, leading the Bush administration to step in and use federal bailout funds to keep them alive.

Earlier this year, the Obama administration announced that the two companies’ restructuring plans were inadequate, and pushed Chrysler into bankruptcy with a promise of additional federal aid as it restructures. GM appears likely headed toward bankruptcy as well, in tandem with billions in federal aid.

Increasingly, the upheaval at both companies is causing uncertainty for communities — and the lawmakers who represent them — that are reliant on auto plants and auto dealers, especially in the Rust Belt and surrounding states.

This week, Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas, attempted to use the war-funding supplemental (HR 2346) to give the 789 Chrysler LLC auto dealers slated for closure June 9 a temporary reprieve. She pushed an amendment that would have directed the Treasury Department to withhold bailout funding to any automaker that does not give its dealers at least 60 days notice before closing them down.

Hutchison told the Senate on Thursday she was not “trying to reach into Chrysler’s decisions that they have made that will shut down these dealerships. We are just asking for three more weeks to let them shut down in, hopefully, a little bit better situation. Let them get some help to know what they have to do and to sell all the parts, all the equipment, and try to get their financial arrangements in order.”

Hutchison said the extra time would help the surviving dealerships as well, “because, hopefully, they are going to buy some of this equipment, and they will need financing to do that as well.”

The amendment was not included in the final bill, but Hutchison and Michigan Democratic Sen. Debbie Stabenow , D-Mich., secured assurances from Chrysler President James Press that dealers “will receive a fair and equitable value for virtually all of their outstanding vehicles and parts inventory.”

“Thanks to your input today we have added a new set of assurances and information for the . . . dealers with the intention of removing some of the uncertainty that naturally surrounds this process,” Press said in a letter to Hutchison.