to all the information previously there could be updates the person responsible did not even get the alert there was a net days and now every time there is new data that individual gets all the information in one place. >> very good. . .ineffect exploding

shreds of metal that injured eight people and were killed and many others but the real default is not with the a airbag. there is no blood on the airbags but some may say there is blood on the hands of the tekata makers who concealed and covered up the deadly affects of the explosion. the fault is really this device. the inflater. because it contained a substance that caused this explosion,

ammonioum nitrate and the question for tekata today is whether these devices are any safer then they were when they killed eight people. and the evidence may well show that these inflaters are as dangerous today as they were when tekata first learned they were potential killers, some years ago as early as 2004-2006 and that they are as dangerous today and should be completely revamped and revised in their basic design and structure. the number of deaths reported so far is eight. i feel that that number is a lot like the number 13 that was first acknowledged by gm as

caused by its defective ignition switch. we now know that number is at least 117 because of the findings of the compensation found that gm established only after i and others on this committee called for them to do it. that number of eight may grow. it may be only the tinaly fractional tip of the iceberg of death that was caused by these exploding airbags. and so i believe, as has been stated that this report is a devastating indictment of an agency that was responsible for are protecting the public. let's not forget the responsibility of corporate executives who could have and should have fully disclosed and

then protected their customers from these devastatingly deadly devices. ...

institutional change and the new laws that give you the tools to you need. so he dominated the caps on penalty, not just waiting for them, but eliminating the penalty for nondisclosure. the early warning reporting act so you can take action the automaker accountability act that i propose as well as criminal penalties not just on the company billed the corporate executives when they cover up or conceal the defects.

and as my colleague already said rental car companies need to be held accountable to the used car dealer at least one of these occur as a result of a used car and they can't find the owner of the car because he or she bought it as a used car. they are required to repair under the current law but there is no requirement if they fix any outstanding safety defects before selling used cars and this gap is in the consumer protection and puts people at risk.

so i think there are a number of acts that can be taken and not the least of which has happened with the gm ignition defect to be disclosed. the settlements ought to be banned. that's why it still poses the sunshine litigation act. i want to know whether you will join me in seeking these basic fundamental reforms. we can blame as much as we wish for the failure of the past and there have been deadly failures. but repairing the system and restore to and we forgive you for reforming it ought to be our concern and it's not just oversight but it's addressing

these problems giving you new tools at your successor so that there is real institutional change to the hispanic i just want to start by saying thank you because what you are seeing are the tools available to us to get action. if we don't have those authorities or even the maximum is effective we can't do our job. so we will support and provide any assistance to help the new authorities. >> and you need more resources do you not? it's something like 30 times your budget and 6,000 employees. is that not a glaring deficiency that doesn't reflect a lack of investment in the agency and in the safety of the roads and drivers? >> you are citing a chart that

makes that comparison? so with under 500 deaths they have over 6,000 safety professionals working at that number. in the rail industry they have 110, and they've got close to 700 professionals working on that and 32719 lives lost on the roadways and we have 90 people dealing with those. >> is our airplane and airspace were as dangerous as the cars and roads corporate officials would be indicted and there would be sweeping changes in the airline industry. the lack of dramatic crashes is perhaps what enables the crash by crash tragedies that have been detailed and the nation has to make the kind of investment in your agency that has made him

the safety of our airspace. >> the senator followed by senator daynes. i will go over and vote and if we want to ask people questions and we will pick up as soon as we get you with the vote. >> thank you very much. senator blumenthal and i have a bill. the reporting system improvement act that requires automakers to automatically provide more documents about potentially defective cars that requires them to make more of that information available to the public so that it can protect itself and we can't get back the people whose lives were lost to

the ignition switch effect. we can't get back the people who were related to the airbags. but you do have the authority to implement many of the changes that the marquee blumenthal early reporting bill requires. you can take permanent measures. to put them information about the defects into the hands of the public in case the analysts failed to spot the next ignition switch exploding airbag defect. you can look at the families that lost their parents and children spouses, siblings because of these defects into buchanan told them that you did everything. you could to make sure that their lives were not lost in vain. will you call for the blue making to require automakers to alert them to fatal defects and

to have ntsa look into this? >> we will make that information available. many have already been raised and available that would have helped save lives. our interest will be to look at that and the current legal requirements of the confidentiality wouldn't actually impede that objective. >> will you do a rulemaking in order to make sure that there is a formalized process to insure that the information does. they don't have the federal restrictions in the privacy for example. three of >> what you do the rulemaking

consisted in the privacy act and confidential proprietary information to ensure the rulemaking that any information will be made public and that the auto industry will be forced to give you that information will you conduct of the rule making to conduct that will? >> whether or not it is even needed. >> so you will do everything that is allowed by law to insure that they will provide you with the information about the defects and that will then release that information? will do everything that is allowed texas to access to mcvey will look into it to provide transparency yes. >> and you're saying you do not need a rulemaking to accomplish

that? will you do with a rulemaking if one is required after you determine the scope of the authority with the existing rules will you do with a rulemaking if it is necessary? >> if you would be it would be useful for the transparency, yes. >> that's very important. i think that while give the information to the public. if people can go online to buy the car they should be able to go online to determine if the car had a defect. the sooner you put it online, the sooner you put that information up the sooner they get that information out there it is accountable into the industry will know that the consumers will be came. they will be protecting the family. they will be able to ensure any successor ntsa is accountable and if ensures that information is made public.

we have another bill and that phil is -- bill is one that says it's a used car that may have a recall. that actually ensures that there is a replacement part. but the person that purchased the car really doesn't know about it. so our bill would require that when the owner registers the cars they are made aware of the safety defects and that those repairs are made. would you support that? >> it would be the touch points to get that informed. we talk about it because at this point there is no sense of the technology to do that and making sure that the consumers basically don't have any

negative effects. so it could be the that such point that is used. we are suggesting a pilot program to work out the technology to figure out how it could go national. >> i'm doing the heavy lifting right now with the gavel. >> i hear you when you say that they need our help and if the agency is going to be able to deliver effective oversight, we need to consider increasing the funding for the crash data collection systems and enhance the office of defect investigations. but before that happens you must

prove your agency can do this and have the procedures to ensure it is done in a timely manner. often times it means more death and problems. i see the incredible effort they are making for the collision avoidance and mitigation. the new developments are going to be traveling on the nation's roads much safer smarter energy efficient and less congested. in congress i believe they need to do their part to promote the policies to help us in this area of safety and mobility to ensure that nhtsa has the resources to not only address the major issues of this facing one in particular with airbags but also encourage the development of the technologies that have the potential to save thousands of lives in the future but it will

be difficult to secure the funding and the ability to move this incredible technology forward if folks like myself and fellow members are not confident that the resources were going to be deployed in an effective manner and as the report has made clear, there is a considerable amount of work to do. this is a -- to recall is unprecedented in the scale. and you've introduced a number of programs and initiatives in order to do this. in your own internal funding report and how you anticipate the agency being about to implement these recommendations before the end of the year can you say that nhtsa can adequately coordinate if you are in the middle of right now and implement reforms without more funding from congress? >> we already have that plan in

place. there will be an opportunity to see the effectiveness of the agency to be able to use these resources, to be able to do this in an expedited way. spike in the lack of transparency and accountability the severely sufficient workforce in volume and expertise as i mentioned earlier and you've mentioned here you deliver to 17 recommendations and nhtsa has concurred. you've provided detailed actions and steps to make the changes but based on now you have intimate knowledge of the agency as a result of your work. do you bb the agency is capable of making these changes and how long do you think it will take? >> i would hold the administrator to his word when he responded to the audit report he indicated not only conquering, but a very

aggressive intent to make good on all of those and a relatively short timeframe in our experience dealing with similar reports and other modes of the department of transportation. clearly the burden is on the agency at this point to make good on its promises to reform its processes so that it may then come to congress and say we are prepared to handle what we have and by the way we may be able to do and even better job should the policy matter be afforded more resources. >> you set an aggressive timeline of one year again based on the in based on the knowledge and e. have a lot of experience with a lot of different agencies. is that a realistic timeline? >> is.

we will bird-dog these organizations and implementation of them as carefully as we have anything else in our long history of providing oversight for the department of safety regulatory agencies. >> we will be working with you closely. that's been my frustration when you get the recommendations from the ig there's lipservice but never follow the surface but never follow through and one-year term than two years and three years. in the work of the case of the agency its people's lives at stake and we need to have a robust regulator that is also able to help us in the industry and in the auto industry to move to even more dramatic safety improvements with some of the technologies coming forward so i look forward to working with both of you thank you so much. >> it looks like you and i are going to have a one time conversation. because i don't appreciate your

work and i appreciate both witnesses being here and i will complete the questioning we have more members back when they get back from the floor so hopefully if not we will go to recess until they do. but i want to talk about it about the gap in the protection that others are talking about last saturday i dropped my daughter's car off at the dealership with most of the work myself, my father owned in automotive business and it was an independent auto repair service and so the question becomes the second owner, third owner, fourth owner of a particular vehicle. when i went into that dealership, do they have an obligation to tell me if there is a recall on a particular make and model? >> it's part of of our growth america request to get that

independent. if you go to that new car dealer they should get that for you automatically. >> if you go to a new car dealership today, are they obligated on a service maintenance contract that you might have with them to tell you if there is a recall? what are they obligated on are they required? >> yes. >> because i did ask and they gave me the reason to. but i don't know that i've ever been to the dealership that i've dropped a car off and that they've told me -- and maybe they don't have to unless you have a recall so i'm not putting that into question. so if i took the vehicle instead of to a jiffy lube they wouldn't be obligated to tell me if there was a recall? >> none of them are responsible. >> how is that going to change? >> we have asked them to change that so that everybody not just

the new car manufacturers would also be required to run a check and inform you. >> so if your tendency is to bring your car to an independent station, what is your alternative than to know about the recall? >> if anybody on the regular basis even weekly goes to look at the number. i guarantee my daughter wouldn't. there is the gap. i know that you are a parent and i hope you had a good father's day. how do you protect that child as a parent that represent everybody in the room how do you protect that child knowing? a better question.

>> i'm going to find that out. we are with you. there's so there is so much discussion about recall fatigue. it's already creating a national campaign. they ran quick to the ticket. we want to use the same effectiveness to go after the issue. it's great to come here and announce that there are too many people like our kids that are not going to do that. we have to find how to fill those gaps. >> thank you for the hard work both of you. i'm going to go down on the floor i will turn it over at this point. thank you very much.

>> i truly am grateful for the airbags that killed the league -- the airbags that killed me attention and for the underscores and for the lack of efficacy last summer there was an international model 4800 that the front axle look sad and it caused -- have to break, sees that the left wheel, front wheel. it was coming down highway 12 outside of hello my montana. i drive this all the time. during the daylight hours, the weather conditions were fine and they veered into oncoming traffic and the volunteer fire chief in the truck was held in a very violent head-on collision

and there was a family of five. i would drive back and forth and it stays after it happened and you can see the marks coming in is in the straightaway. this particular has been called in to the 500 vehicles. the notifications went out and it turns out this exact component was a nhtsa approved solution to the previous recall that occurred in 2003.

with that as background, the recent oig report frequently makes references to the defects and the lack of process procedures in the data and analysis contained in analysis contained in the reports, which i've looked over. they made 17 recommendations to improve early data verification processes and things in the external reviews and evaluates the staff training needs among the other recommendations. fortunately this isn't the first time any of the recommendations have been made. they had similar issues and made similar recommendations in 2002 and 2004 and 2011 and 2014 and now here we are in 2015. so my question is how they declared a safety recall two

months after the accident. they moved quickly in the interim solution. 12 months after the final recall is being sent into and a solution is being executed. you mentioned in the testimony of the automaker's response ability to remedy the defects of compliments. my question is why is it taking a year for something like this and whether the science and engineers to expedite the solution to mitigate the safety risks for all of americans. >> i said this earlier and i don't know if i can say it enough but story about the tragedy of the lives lost can't be told enough tickets to every one of the tragedies. what you're highlighting is something we've emphasized. if they are not remedied you still have the risk and that's what is going on here and part of the challenge you're citing is making sure that in a timely

manner the correct long-term permanent solution is in place. so you can count on me going back to find out the specifics even more than you are telling me now to see what is going on. >> is also the face of innocence turning back to three or four spots. it was a nice evening and a straightaway and you see this young couple and kids in the back of a pickup and if it is a road i drive all the time it's the innocence of the lives lost. >> if you look at the speed of which the remedies are put in place, i would greatly appreciate you taking a look at that. and part of that is how many times has a nhtsa had more than one recall on the same people components? and i know that you are new to the job and i appreciate your

leadership and i know we have belonged a long to do list but i would appreciate you looking into that. the office of inspector general maintained stats on how often the components are recall it more often than once. it is something to look at in the process and of a systemic challenges that exist with the goal of preventing the tragedies from ever happening again. the pain never goes away. they had over a decade to

implement the numerous recommendations from your office. what do you see the challenge on why it is taking so long to implement? >> some of those recommendations were for the circumstances in the programs we were examining at the time. in the 2004 reports that you referenced, we are examining nhtsa's ability to implement requirements of the newly enacted act. in 2011, we were looking at the investigative phase can barely have nhtsa's obligations operations and in the early phase i don't want to sound like an overly parsing this that we are trying to defect every phase of the application with the idea of being able to command what's going on right, what's going on wrong and make effective recommendations to improve. the recommendations in this case

all concurred by the agency very aggressive timeline for their implementation. we believe they can all be implemented in fact in the current resources. and i think that is the agency's intent. most commendable on their part. but the doctor is attempting to do in our estimation is to change the organizational culture at least the defect investigation and resolution part of the operation. >> and i spent 20 years in business before i took this different job on the hill. they always say it's what you in insects, not expect and in the clear metrics. it should be gone speed instead of how quickly we are going from an accident to action in the field here that's going to correct the defect. it seems like when they were in

the field within the two months why to take the federal agency of the year before we -- gives a ten month gap. >> and i think you're talking about safety steps that can be taken by way of corrective action or by way of recall. remember for again if you will come out worker and audit focused on the pre- investigative phase, we did get to the timing element of that part of nhtsa's effort. our audit report, but so much the statement today, but a report released at the end of last week did discuss at some length, the length of time it took for the investigative proposal to be evaluated if and assessed in the investigation. that is a step of of course because the longer you won't ever going to get to the action or the recall in the position of the influence by nhtsa unless

you get through this investigation proposal of the evaluation and decision stage. we found one instance where the investigation languished five months. this is recently. another one had been on the books for more than a year without resolution. there is a pattern for evaluation and discussion within the office of the defect investigation of some of these investigative proposals. but again, to pick up on the opening remarks at this point, question assumptions. one of the assumptions that desperately must be questioned is how can we speed up the decision so that we can get to the decision to investigate sooner and hopefully upon the investigation get to the decision on the corrections. >> i'm assuming they are for

though and we probably identified the problem and how to mitigate the risk. it just seems as though we are seeing a pretty big gap and i appreciate your efforts to change the culture and look at the ways that we can move faster. the senator and the chairmen have just returned. i am going to turn it back to you. thank you for the comments. >> thank you for presiding here. we will get you to devote. that wraps up the first panel. so thank you for your time and testimony and response to the questions. i want to invite the second panel to come up and we will get going on it.

>> [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations]

[inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we want to welcome our second panel of witnesses this morning. thank you for being here for the testimony. i want to hand it off for

opening statements. we have the executive vice president of north america. the senior vice president of vehicle compliance known as chrysler group and the executive vice president for honda. so i'm going to ask on your left and buying right it my right if you proceed with your testimony and we will go from there and if you can as close to five minutes as possible and take it from there. >> is it on now? ranking member nelson and distinguished members of the committee, i am honored to be here on behalf of cover employees throughout the united

states. safety is the core of what we do and who we are. we are proud the air bags have saved thousands of lives and pay them to do serious injuries in the hundreds of thousands of accidents. it is unacceptable to us for even one of our products to fail to perform as intended. we deeply regret instances in which someone has been injured or killed. we will do everything in our power to address the safety concerns raised. our chairmen met twice with the administrators and made that commitment personally. that's why after months of testing and extensive analysis of voluntarily agreed to take a broad action in conjunction with the automakers to respond to your concerns and those of the public. our agreement contemplates dramatically expanding recalls including national going well

beyond the scope of the risk by the science and the testing. based on 57,000 tests have returned into leaders in the years of research by leading experts from around the world the best current judgment is the rupture issues are related to long-term exposure over many years to persist in the conditions of high heat and absolute humidity. for some of these issues may involve potential manufacturing and vehicle specific factors. most have involved water into leaders in the high heat and absolute humidity. in and all of the analysis to date indicates it is limited to an extremely small fraction of indicators. that's why the filing states that safety related defect may arise. not all of the inflators are covered by the recalls are

defective. but even one rupture is too many so the remedy program is much broader. most of the injuries and fatalities in the u.s. have both the driver side airbag inflators including the propellant. we have agreed to replace all from the starter production through the end of production in any vehicle registered anywhere in the united states. these will proceed in stages and the final stage will include the replacement of the batwing inflators previously installed as remedy parts. we are ceasing production of the inflators altogether. there've been far fewer rupture is evolving passenger side airbags and nevertheless our agreement also contemplates significantly expanded recalls for the passenger airbag inflators. to support them, the total production of replacement kits

from north america will soon reach 1 million per month. we have augmented our capacity to produce by including inflators made by other suppliers. we are investing in innovation and working with our automaker customers to develop a range of products. at the same time continuing to serve customers by producing airbag inflators that use space stabilized the test distinct benefits over the alternative. we have full confidence in the safety and we are using various technologies in response to the recall. the process of qualifying takes time and for certain types of airbags and certain vehicle models can't best solution is to use existing technologies in place of the original unit. we agree with nhtsa but it's absolutely the right response not to wait but replace an older

unit with a new innovator. doing so has a certain benefit. we've agreed with takata to do ongoing testing to verify the safety and service of the parts. if they need to be replaced we will act before the risk of that church development. we are also supporting the testing work of the automakers as well as the work of the independent quality assurance panel led by the secretary of transportation. and we will work with the automakers to get the word out to maximize the recall completion rates three and we will continue to do all we can to ensure the safety and keep you and the public updated on the progress. thank you mr. chairman. >> chairman, ranking member nelson, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to appear and provide an update on this important matter.

i am the senior vice president head of vehicle safety regulatory compliance at former chrysler. i lead an organization with mission safeguarding customers that we embrace with passion. as you note the involvement with takata airbags is extensive, proactive and ongoing. today's automobiles are among the most sophisticated complex consumer goods on the market. manufacturers are more committed than ever to developing advanced safety technologies to reduce fatalities and injuries resulting in a motor vehicle crashes. on a dalia basis we work to design for engineering and manufacture vehicles to withstand the operating conditions. promoting and ensuring the safety is a responsibility shared by automaker suppliers, government and consumers. we look forward to continuing this collective engagement with

takata and nhtsa to address the critical situation related to the inflators. we've remained actively engaged since i spoke with the committee last november. much has transpired since that time through multiple campaign expansions and based on the information from both takata and nhtsa they are on the process of recalling 4.8 million inflators across the united states. we are taking actions determining the raptors which remains with no one at this time and if they are an active participant in the independent testing coalition the group consisting of all of the affected manufactures formed in december of 2014, and again trying to determine the root cause of the raptors. in addition, they continue to further the resource and

understanding. but despite that determination to date, the mission to identify and implement solutions that will improve the safety of the customers haven't been delayed. i'm pleased to share with the committee. they are replacing all driver-side inflators in the recall with an alternative and permanent design provided. customers that received the inflators. the inflators that are no longer needed in the supply are being quarantined and returned. all of them will be notified to return from the update as well. in addition to driver-side efforts, they've been working with takata to continue the passenger inflators designs. these will contain an improved material as well as they

protection for the propellant from the moisture exposure. these designs will complete the validation testing in august and expects to begin installing those in november of this year. to date they continue to be aware of just a single incident involving a driver side airbag including an injury in one of the vehicles. actions demonstrate the abundance of caution we are employing. in closing i would like to read or write promoting and ensuring the safety is the responsibility shared by the suppliers government and consumers and we will continue to collaborate with takata nhtsa and others to address the matter. i want to extend my thanks for discussing this issue and i would be pleased to answer any questions. >> thank you. as the next ranking member nelson and members of the committee, i appreciate the opportunity to update the committee on the efforts to last appearance before the committee.

we've confirmed two more customers lost their lives. one in september, 2014 and the other in april of this year as a result of takata and later ruptures have occurred in the older model vehicles. this is heartbreaking. and a painful reminder to us of the reason. it's for the families of the victims. we sincerely apologize to them and extend our deepest sympathies. we are working very hard to solve the problem. over and above the notification to the effects of customers and we have pursued new and creative ideas to encourage customers to check their vehicles identification number in order to increase the rate of response to the recall. we have enhanced and created a

site to make it easy for them to check their vehicles for the open recalls. honda is so voluntarily initiated a bilingual advertising program to end -- m4. the commercials in full-page newspaper ads represented here to my left was designed to grab the attention of customers and the nine high-temperature humidity states and the u.s. territories. we are also using social media channels in a targeted way including the facebook with good success. and let me ask mr. chairman that whenever we issue a press release or statement on the matter we request the news media help us by directing customers in the recall website to get the vehicle repaired and we have the assistance in the

effort. to accelerate the actions and increase the supply of inflators, they began with supply to facilitate the repairs of these over model vehicles and that led to agreements with auto leave in the trw to provide us with replacement parts in addition to takata. as we go to this effort and the actions taken by the dealers we are averaging more than 50,000 readers per week. we've also asked them to expand service hours and never turn away a customer with an effective vehicle. we require them to check every vehicle that comes in to the dealership. to support this policy in february we initiated a system that alerts the others whenever their staff fails to check the car brought in for service to see if it has an open recall and we've reinforced the policy to provide customers a loner or rental car free of charge while

the vehicle is repaired or if they are reading for a replacement parts to be delivered. all are authorized to make a vehicle available without prior approval. we've been searching salvage yards nationwide to secure recall the inflators and we've identified many thousands that never will be installed in another vehicle. we've enlisted the special for affected by the inflators recalls for many reasons it's difficult to locate and get them repaired. i suggested that we find a way to tie the registration process to the requirement that safety defects be addressed before the completion of the vehicle registration.

subsequently injured by the rupture and who also appeared before the committee last fall joined me in writing an op-ed in support of the idea of such a registration requirement. we continue to be the there is a promise in this approach and we want to thank the senators for introducing it. i recognize there are some issues that require further discussion but i'm convinced this is the single most significant step we can take. again i appreciate the opportunity to be here before the committee and i am happy to address your questions. >> they'd urged takata to get replacements in the vehicles of the defective airbags as quickly as possible even if the root cause hasn't been identified they have to be replaced again some years down the road.

we are all concerned that this has persisted for way too long. we've got eight people have died from the numerous others have received serious injuries. takata has been looking at the problem for several years. we need to know why this happened and make sure that it doesn't happen again. so tell me what they are doing to find the root cause. >> well, senator, we have been working with a number of avenues to get to the root cause. as you mentioned we've been working on it for a number of years. we have learned much especially the last six to eight months we understand a number of factors that caused the issues that we

don't have a cause we can turn on and off but in spite of that, we've gone forward with the automakers to replace parts in the best interest of the public safety. >> without a root cause. >> the inflators don't have the same defect so why is it a good idea to put new inflators into cars that might have the same defect. >> many of the replacement parts are alternative design. they are not the same that was used. as i mentioned particularly on the driver side they they caused all of the fatalities in the field as well as most of the serious injuries and we were not replacing them with bat wings. we will go out and get every one that was ever made including all of the remedy parts.

if we are using alternative inflators from the competitors to speed up the replacement parts into the field. and then we are continuing to work to improve. to make sure that they are safe. >> of these replacement bags are they going to be safer than the original equipment? >> what we do know is that it takes a considerably long time for the condition to manifest itself. they said seven to 12 years. so we know that there is a large increase in public safety and at

the margin of safety by putting a brand-new inflators and we do know there were manufacturing defects with all of the testing in the last six months, so we feel very confident in those that we are making today. >> takata stated as you know that they are safe in the interim that require replacement at a later date and it also endorsed this approach. you stated that chrysler will be replacing all drivers side and inflators but they designed by manufacturer to describe the design has permanent customers that received the replacement will not need to come back for another replacement. given that we still don't know the cause for this defect why are you so confident that they will not have to be replaced in the near future? >> in this case, the inflators

that we are replacing with their help mind you has a track record and we are not aware of the field. we were fortunate to have the inflators with the characteristics to utilize the token that has a track record and that explains the confidence. >> for the automakers i'm sure that you both recall because we had her in here who was seriously injured by shrapnel and testified in the hearing she took her car to the dealership and is was subject to an open recall. that's pretty incredible. three times. the question is what steps have you all taken since then and i know that you described some of them but how are you going to

give us an insurance that is important safety recalls have been addressed to ensure they will be shared with customers when they get their cars in and have service? >> it's an important question on our minds. we have more than 1200 in the united states and we are working hard with them. we've done a number of things since the last word here in november. as i mentioned we've initiated a new report that the dealer neglected to check when the customer came in. we have face-to-face meetings with the dealers and we had solid managers and district managers and every dealer and they talked about the importance of checking for over ten recalls. we have periodic regions of the dealer principals. we have in the last several us reinforced again that

obligation. mr. chairman and there is sometimes turn over the need to continue to make sure that education is well understood and principles understand this is our expectation and we are going to check every one of these. we've taken multiple efforts already and we will continue to remind them of their obligation. >> i would read a great many of the same planes that were highlighted we are doing this with respect to informing the responsibility and i would add something he mentioned earlier we made sure the technology is also there to make this a nondomestic step in the process and vehicle rolls into the dealer with most cases in the automated fashion they uploaded the information to the service writers screen and they are flagged to schedule the activity so an in admission to the

responsibility and the urgency here making sure that they ached as an automatic step in the process. >> what you all hold up that photograph please. this is the picture of a massive explosion in 2006 in the mexico plant so massive that it blew out windows. the display accused the nitrate performance to make airbag leaders is that correct? >> that is correct. >> in your written response to

the november letter the kennedys that explosion was caused by improper storage of repellent to scrap. >> that's correct. >> is that the type of concerned the safety audits were intended to identify? >> one of them yes sir. >> then why would takata decide to hold these audits for financial reasons? >> i believe you are referring to the report yesterday by the committee. i think that misrepresents what happened and if you would allow me i would explain that. but that was referring to first of all there are a number of safety. the number of audits referred to

in the e-mail were not the safety and quality audits on the product first of all. i think that was implied or inferred from the report. second the only thing that was suspended was the participation of people from other regions of the world. we helped the local safety audits. we helped the local quality audits. >> ..

clicks the report from the institute has concluded that it is a multifactor combination exposure to high humidity clicks how do you describe the southern california death? quakes that is why we are continuing to look into the issue. we have experts from penn state georgia tech and are working with a vast array and are continuing to try.

clicks would you want your daughter to drive a vehicle quakes would you replace clicks are placed in the passenger side clicks is just a driver-side design. it is purely a driver-side quakes the batwing design is attributed to the defect quakes all of the fatalities

and most of the serious injuries have involved those deflator's which is why we have agreed to get them in the field quakes i i did not get your answer that you jumped to the passenger side quakes you asked me -- maybe i misinterpreted your question quakes driving the automobile that you had replaced that design clicks i would i would have no issue at all senator. how do you feel the consumers can think this is fixed quakes that is why we have agreed to place everyone. a lot of people have talked about the adversity that we

as an industry and government need to concentrate we need to get analyzed. you get a new airbag manufacture. tell us about that. quakes again as i stated, we are fortuitous and the ability to identify an alternative this is a permanent solution, not understanding what might happen.

we wanted a clear path clicks thank you, mr. chairman clicks senator blumenthal clicks thank you. thank you for being here today. you have been with takata for about three years clicks just over ten years quakes you were with the company in 2005 quakes december of 2005 quakes i would like you to commit that takata will establish a confirmation fund. >> i have not been involved

in the recall so i cannot do that. i will take it to our chairman and get back with you on that but i am not in a position to commit to that >> do you not run the company north american operation? >> i have responsibility for certain aspects, customer activity including sales and marketing engineering, program engineering, program management, core engineering not related to insulators but other projects as well as it and communications. >> i am just a country lawyer, but it sounds like you run the company. >> i report to a committee a committee and the president of north america. i do not run all aspects.

clicks -- >> the fund you should establish likely to result in additional death. lexuses and inflator that

caused the explosion caused by the answer. the result by explosion and you can see where the shard emanated and could well have caused the kind of death we have seen a time so far correct? >> yes, sir. i believe sincerely that you are. have you replace the chemical, ammonium nitrate?

>> some of the chemicals include ammonium nitrate but it is a design we have not experienced issues with. >> you have not experienced issues because you have not finished testing. >> they have been in the field for a number of years using a number of different vehicles and it is an alternative design that have not seen issues. >> why are you continuing to use ammonium nitrate when it was very likely a contributing factor if not the factor in causing these exploding fighters? >> i would respectfully disagree is the issue causing the inflator ruptures. one of the potential factors in it. the materials we were using

it is highly, highly toxic. some of the other materials we have used issues with handling and manufacturing because they were energetic in a normal state stabilized ammonium nitrate, if you put it on the table and put a torch on it you cannot even lighted. safe, clean, burns efficiently which addresses the concerns with previous propellants causing respiratory issues. >> but the problem is it becomes unstable when it becomes moist or accumulate moisture, correct? >> it is not a phase stabilization issue. it is an issue with the phase stabilization of ammonium nitrate. the conclusions of the

institute has come to is this is not a phase stabilization issue. we cannot measure the loss of phase stabilization. it is not a phase phase stabilization issue. it is a much more stable issue that takes many years and sometimes in certain vehicles, sometimes vehicles, sometimes in one able perform well. the same exact area will have issues. there are there are a number of things. we were trying to act so that we could continue the analysis. >> you are continuing to use ammonium nitrate with a different design? >> we have many designs that use phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. there are of the six involved in this, most --

five of the six are out of production. the ones involved in this particular issue are not in production any longer. >> looking forward are you replacing the batwing propellants or inflator is out there now with insulators that have ammonium nitrate. >> a completely different design but they still use phase stabilized ammonium nitrate. we are 50 percent of the inflator kids our competitors outside of leaders. >> have you tested these designs? quakes yes. >> how rigorously? >> for years.

>> have a a shown signs of moisture? >> not to my knowledge. >> you are continuing to use ammonium nitrate? >> yes. >> and that is one of the reasons you are going to ammonium nitrate? >> as i stated the path provided me with confidence, the most confidence that it would be a permanent solution. >> that is a genteel and a genteel and nice way of saying that you want a safe propellant, and you are going with a company a company that does not use ammonium nitrate, correct? >> that is accurate. >> mr. kennedy, your company filed for a patent in 2006 that in effect demonstrated the knowledge of moisture's effect on ammonium nitrate,

correct? >> i am not involved in the path of our insulators insulators, senator. if you give me more information i may be able to comment. >> i will give you information available to all which is that your company explained that moisture could seep into the inflator and might cause the propellant to become more unstable. i have said that numerous times. filed for a times. filed for a patent in 2006 the demonstrated it was aware of the problem in that year we have addressed that in our designs manufacturing process.

>> are you familiar with the chemical nun's desk can't? >> yes, i am aware. >> at what time did takata begin to add desiccant? >> it was in the timeframe you mentioned, 2007 until 2008. >> and 2008. >> and the reason was to reduce the effect of moisture in making the ammonium nitrate more unstable. >> there were a number of changes made to my number of design changes that were made in that time. the propellant formulation was changed. desiccant was added to a number of components were updated. it is part of what

in japan they called kaizen, continuous improvement looking at ways to improve parts. in those particular parts on the passenger side we were able to shrink the size by 10 millimeters which saved weight and space health meet requirements and customers meet goals of weight reduction and performance improvement. >> continuous improvement? >> yes, sir. >> kaizen in japanese? it sounds like a you -- euphemism for trying to avoid exploding airbags. >> no sir. not at all. i disagree. it was a. it was a continuous improvement on the product. every manufacturer -- >> how did it improve the product? the propellant exploding as a result of moisture. >> a number of changes were implemented into the inflator's. the addition was one which allowed us to make the inflator smaller lighter. those were all things that

we are always looking to do. >> is it not fair to say one of the reasons was the presence of moisture inside the inflator? >> moisture is a problem. every inflator has leak paths. it is full of holes in order to let gas come out. so out. so it is an issue that every manufacturer deals with. >> your new insulators, have they shown evidence of moisture? >> i don't -- i am not sure if i can answer that completely because i do not know that we have gotten parts of that from the field on these newer ones and

looked at it. >> i i thought your testimony was they had been rigorously tested. >> they have. >> but you don't know whether moisture has been found? >> i i don't know the answer to that specific question. >> where i am going is essentially there is a lot of evidence that ammonium nitrate is a root cause and that there may well need to be a recall of the recall and continuing problem. gm at least redesigned and manufactured the defective product that caused gas on the road as a result of the defective ignition switch. the continued use of ammonium nitrate leads me to believe there may well need to be a recall of the recall >> as part of the consent order we have agreed to

continue to test the remedy parts all of our efforts internal and external with the consortium individual oem, automakers doing their own testing. we have not stopped anything in relation to this issue and are continuing to look everywhere to make sure that we understand this issue. >> have you issued 25. >> we need to keep moving. >> i knew my colleague would be here. >> you are so kind. >> let me ask, would you commit to supporting a bill that i have offered the requires used-car dealers to repair outstanding safety recalls prior to selling the

lease? >> we support that concept. we expect those to be taking care of. they may have a product from another manufacturer. similarly a chrysler dealer in their independent used-car dealers. we would like to discuss the need to ensure oem. most definitely we support the concept. >> i know you reached out to the honda owners affected that could not contact them because they bought the car used. they died as a result. >> indeed, the unfortunate indeed, the unfortunate aspect of fatalities older model vehicles that tends to change hands. we have not been able to

contact the appropriate party. we support the concept. >> thank you. i will be brief. last november as evidence emerged airbags might be susceptible i call on an expanded recall. responding to the responding to the recall request letter stating he believes the data currently available did not support a nationwide recall. what information did takata have last month that it did not have earlier? >> that is a great question that i would i would be happy to answer. we have much more test data now and have completed over 57,000 deployments most of the last six months that

have helped us understand where these issues are and what is causing them and do not have definitive root cause. also we have had a two day meeting where we brought the people in and their experts and had our third party offer report directly to them not filtered all and did the same thing with oem and have continued to work with a number of other outside experts that i mentioned earlier, penn state, georgia tech. >> this goes back to 2006. it seems like a long time and we have heard so many explanations about why the different explanations and why it took this long and nearly ten years to get done. >> there has been a lot done a number of recalls that have been issued starting in 2008 the first one. we have anticipated and

supported multiple recalls in that timeframe. it was on this latest issue that got started in 2013. the end of 2013 was when the first incident outside of previous recall population occurred. >> go ahead. >> now with this recall and it will involve a lot of vehicles, how do you prioritize in terms of -- is it geographically, the age of the vehicle? >> again a again a very good question and one that was contemplated and it varies by design. the drivers side where we had the most issues are

being prioritized based upon location. a location of where they are currently registered, originally registered or ever registered. the others are prioritized by age. as the administrator mentioned, that is administrator mentioned, that is part of the consent order. we will be working with k2 and the automakers to do the prioritization and get the right parts to write owners of the right time as of a couple days ago we are right now -- this -- this month we will produce close to 700,000. >> how many total. >> the total replacement is elusive but somewhere in the 32 million range vehicles that were ever manufactured.

kaywun how long do. >> how long do you think it will take to do that? >> 1 million units a month shortly. 32,000,002,000,000 assumes that all of those vehicles are still on the road. a a number of them are not on the road. it will be somewhat less. >> one last question. how many affected honda and chrysler vehicles have received replacements? >> have received replacements? on the driver side just side -- just shy of 50,000 units and have implemented a recall of the inflator. maybe 1,000 units. >> okay. >> we have replaced nearly 2 million.

>> it sounds like there will be a lot more. all right. thank you very much. >> senator nelson has one question to ask. let me ask you manufacturers if your companies or other auto manufacturers are looking into what role if any the vehicle design may have played with regard to persistent high humidity of affecting performance and if so what have you learned? >> mr. chairman, i will answer that first. you are referring to a report recently that takata is mentioning a theory about vehicle a theory about vehicle design mainly on the passenger side not the driver side with theory is grounded. we have not received much information and when we do

we will be happy to look into it but have not begun a study of our own. >> i would reiterate that we are not doing our own study. >> senator nelson. >> one quick question. do you think rental car companies should be prohibited from leasing vehicles under recall until fixed? >> thank you. i am aware of s2119 the rental car recall act. act. we are in support of that concept and support the

concept. the young woman who lost her life was driving a rental vehicle. i understand from i understand from our business model, honda we don't sell to fleets companies like hertz, avis, so forth but there are vehicles that end up in rental car inventory. dealers might sell to one of the large rental car companies. small rental car companies also might buy a vehicle on the used market. we strongly support the concept that they should be fixed. if that had fixed. if that had happened in the case of the young woman southern california who we notify the auto auction there on around the vehicle for the rental car agency bought it and notify the rental car agency and neither of them took the repair it is to our

everlasting regret that it had an impact gleick's just to.out that the hearing record will remain open for two weeks during which time the senators are asked to submit questions for the record. witnesses are asked to submit their answers as soon as possible. i want to thank our panelists and witnesses. it continues to shape the record we build. we want to make sure we are doing everything possible to give accountability and provide the solutions that will prevent this thing from happening again. with that, the hearing is adjourned. thanks. [inaudible conversations]

>> mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. sanford: mr. speaker, in a moment i'll request a moment of sigh lenls. before i do, i stand here with other members of the south carolina delegation save our colleague jim clyburn who right now is back home visiting with the grieved families on the coast of south carolina. and many of us like senator

scott and others, will be going back during this week to visit with those same families. i'm joined as well by members of the black caucus and members of this body who have been deeply shaken by the events of this last week in charleston, south carolina. i rise with this group on behalf of the nine families who have been impacted back home, on behalf of the people of the first district of south carolina, and on behalf of the people of south carolina who have shown a whole lot of heart and a whole lot of love here over the last week. i say this because less than a week ago, as we all know, a young man with incomprehensible malice came into the mother a.m. church and did the unthinkable, as he joined the bible study and he gunned down nine of the members, the

parishioners there at church. but fortunately our story doesn't end there. because the family members of the victims also did the unthinkable. i say that because they're at the bond at the bond hearing they did the imaginable in showing human grace, reflecting god's grace, not repaying evil with evil, the bond hearing, the first family comes up and says, i mean, incomprehensible pain but i forgive you. next family comes up, incredible pain, but i forgive you. and those are the words that were repeated by each of the nine families. i forgive you.

that set the stage in charleston for a level of community that i have never seen in my life and amazing things done at the church and community at large. we all stand here to remember the names of the nine victims and pause for a. would you all stand for a moment. the reverend pinck nmp ey, cynthia hurd, cynthia singleton. the reverend daniels, the reverend middleton and suesey jackson. would you join us in a moment of silence.