city and austin and lafayette and atlanta and chattanooga. the arrival of even one well-equipped broadband competitor causes significant competitive response from incumbent operators benefiting consumers of incumbent and insurgent companies alike. the commission will continue to look for ways to promote broadband competition. one way is to lower some of the costs of extending broadband facilities. we dealt with the inability to get access to con duets in the internet order and we are taking a effort to better align the cost of using poles and con do youets.

they should make available licensed and unlicensed spectrum necessary for competitive wireless broadband. our use of auctions a competitive device in their own right, for a signing license spectrum is well known and in most quarters well celebrated. making available spectrum for unlicensed use draws less public attention, but as the remarkable success of wi-fi demonstrates, it is literally an indispensable element in the provision of broadband today. and if more indispensable is a permissible concept, it will be more indispensable to the broadband of tomorrow. i recently spoke to the person

under which the law was created and when i came onboard at the agency, the question of whether the broadcasters would show up at the incentive action was-- auction was a matter of debate. i am quite encouraged from what we have been hearing from broadcasters. while we are talking about spectrum we should not overlook the role it will play in determining who is the international leader in 5g broadband networks. this nation is the international leader in 4glte as a result of

the availability of spectrum to become a home for lte. we do not intend for the united states to use the poll position in the international wireless broadband race. we will maintain that leadership in the same way we obtained the leadership in 4g. first through being out front in allocating appropriate spectrum and second by allowing carriers to deploy 5g service in any frequency band they find suitable including the 600 mega hurts in the upcoming auction. we proposed a rule to give over the top video providers the ability to choose the same business model as cable and

satellite providers, with the same program access rights. we expect to move that to a report in order this fall. there is a new line of ott providers cueing up to expand video choice and increase consumer demand for broadband. it's also affected by consumers's perceptions about the potential nonmonetary costs of using it. we committed in the open internet order to address issues of privacy implicated by consumer's use of the internet. we will begin that process with a notice of proposed rule making in the autumn. finally, let me be clear we should not and will not let up on our policies to make broadband more available. converting universal service programs from their narrow band

originsoadband is our most important admissions. we have built on that by deploying $10 billion over six years to ten rural price cap barriers to provide broadband service to their customers and we have begun a program to test nontraditional means of delivering broadband in rural areas. i have told senator thaoupb it's my goal to similarly reform the broadband support program for smart rate of return carriers. commissioner o'reilly has played a significant role in this effort including putting forth a set of principles. we are working with the affected carriers to explore the best approach. we had been in search of a consensus proposal from the rate

of return carriers that would help us meet the policy objectives that the commission unanimously adopted in april of 2014. unfortunately unfortunately, while i appreciate the carriers' willingness to engage, if we are to keep on schedule, time is not our friend. absent a consensus from the parties involved, we will put forth our own proposal. just as we need to make sure that all parts of our country have broadband we need to make sure all our citizens are able to use it. last year we expanded our efforts to address the need of the schools and libraries.

learning isn't confined to the classroom. as the commissioner pointed out even those students can now connect at school, too many experience a homework gap when they cannot get online at home. a recent pew research study found that 5 million students -- that's nearly 20% of all students between 6 and 17 -- do not have high speed internet service at home. it is simply unacceptable in an era where learning opportunities have never been richer or more available that these students have to go to mcdonald's or some other wi-fi equipped location to do their assignments. our obligations and opportunities to extract more

value from broadband do not end with our children. another pew study found half of americans that rely on smart phones for broadband access have had to cancel their mobile subscriptions because of financial hardship. a commissioner has been champion championing a program, and she wants to rid the components to get rid of waste and abuse, but to refocus to broadband. we will learn from that notice and then move on to reform and revitalize. broadband service -- broadband access is also very important to another group of americans those who live with physical and

intellectual challenges. although our efforts do not receive headlines as much as some of our other activities, the application of information technology to attack the needs of americans with disabilities will be a priority as long as i am chairman. we are, for instance the first federal agency to harness broadband to allow those who use american sign language to communicate directly with the fcc using online video, a broadband effect. several months ago we began urging all federal agencies to have an online video asl capability. to aid in this, the fcc is building a platform that will allow any company or agency to

plug in and utilized the power of broadband to do a simple thing, help hearing impaired americans communicate. the 25th anniversary of the americans with disabilities act is coming up next month. this is a great opportunity for all federal agencies to take the simple but significant step for harnessing online video for those that speak with their hands and hear with their eyes. as i noted at the beginning of this presentation we are closer to the beginning of the broadband network's promise than the end. the broadband-related agenda i described is key to assuring that the technology's remarkable promise will be realized.

if we succeed in accomplishing this agenda and i am determined that we will, new generations of american innovators will be able to combine their technical abilities and entrepreneurial instincts with broadband's capabilities to produce great things things that today we can't even begin to imagine. thank you very much. i will speak loudly while we are getting the microphone up. i have to say i always thought

of re-writing genisis. you have to have a better biblical sense. >> that's sort of the first half of the story. >> i want to talk about your speech, but before i do that, i want to talk about your book. >> hold it higher will you? >> yeah, available on amazon, and you can never go bad. but i do want to point out that you have been an opponent of pry or tauization, but in this book where you say lincoln was our most technological sophisticated president, the only one to get a patten you reveal he gave the associated press a priority in getting to the telegraph in order to get their stories out because they were generally favorable to lincoln, so my question to you, sir, is if pry

prior tauization was good enough for lincoln why is it not good enough for -- >> well there you go again. >> i should note -- i covered the reading -- >> are you only this far through? >> no it's a reference point. >> it's a really good point, but here is what you have missed however. the telegraph was the original open network. there was no pryiortization in it. a telegraph was handled in the order in which it was received and what you are referencing is what amounted to a form of censorship that the lincoln administration engaged in during the course of the war, and i would say that the realities of

a wartime experience versus the kind of situation that would exist today is a little different, number one, but number two, always remember, the telegraph, the first electronic network was an open network. >> so to be clear you are opposed to priortization but you are in favor of censorship? yours words not mine. >> always fun to sit down with you. we will talk about his use of the ap but we won't. >> we will move on. if you quote me on that, you have to put a smiley face. i want to tie together the speech you gave in 1987.

one of the things we are trying to address on the broadband plan is how do we move from having isp business models based on the models of scarce bandwidth and an r interesting by the way, paid prioritaization, there is no business phaulgt for it. you talked about it a bit, but when i hear you say competition what i hear is deployment, we need without some new deployment of abundant networks there won't be competition. am i understanding that right? >> yes. >> and i think you said government has an obligation to lower the costs of the inputs. i want to talk about wireless

and on the wireless side, spectrum is the key. i would say this administration and you have done a great job, you know, when we arrive with the broadband plan there was no spectrum and you ran the least expensive in terms of money, but applying spectrum it was not there before the ws 3 spectrum, and larry strictland has played a role in that. are there other things you can do in your time to create new spectrum? i just might note ctia released a study this week that pointed out that we got our demand site estimates rights, which astonishes me -- i thought we were making them up but turns out the guys that did the actual study were good, and still with

all that you have done we are still behind. are there other things that can be done? >> first of all it's an activity that is always underway to say where can you find new spectrum? but the reality as mark twain said about real estate they aren't making it anymore. so there is a new paradigm that has to develop in the marketplace and the regulatory environment. about spectrum that i think is based on two realities. first is that everything in the word is economic okay? people who say i'll never part with my spectrum, if you can help them see the economic value in parting with that or having a different approach to their use of the spectrum it often can let

the scales fall from their eyes. that's what auctions do and that's what the incentive auction is doing. the second paradigm shift is the spectrum of sharing. it used to be allocated on the basis that this is the sign of the analog wave form so we have to have a block of spectrum that will allow that to operate and we have to have guard bands on the side to make sure no other wave form gets -- interferes with that, and in a digital world that goes by the way side and sharing becomes much more possible. and one of the things i believe that will come out of the spectrum auction is increased channel sharing, where broadcasters will say i am going to take this 6 megaherts block,

and we will share those. i think we are moving from a concept to its mine to i've got to share it, and that's going to require some transformation in thinking. also we are moving to an environment where the economic issues can be -- or the economic forces can help decide these kinds of issues. >> with the multi-pronged approach, some sharing and some licensed and some unlicensed and all of those things and one of the things that i will find in policy base, in washington some see it black and white, and you will say we not a lot more for unlicensed and for sharing. >> the fact is you will have to

be sharing inside licenses and inside unlicensed as well. the procedures pn that we put out on the auction yesterday, the day before, laid out how in some instances it is ridiculous to say that in this big licensed area, because we have got some interference over in this corner that everything else should not be available. that's a geographic sharing concept. then we have got sharing as i said, inside the same band. i think sharing is both a licensed and an unlicensed kind of activity and opens up opportunities in both. >> they are talking about the wired world and you talked about it and indeed in the last 12 months there have been a number of promising announcements, and one of the things we talked

about was to lower the costs of key inputs like you were talking about with poles and remove barriers at the state and federal and local level, and a lot of cities are changing the way they do business and you at the commission have taken away one of the key state barriers which is law preemtinge municipalities, and that's obviously in court but i want to talk about the federal level and what the fcc might be doing and you mentioned at the council, the department of agriculture and department of commerce are cochairing for kind of an ongoing multiagency task force to make sure there are not barriers. how do you look at that process and what are your hopes for that and what are you planning to do during your time? >> i think the council is a terrific structure that can only be done at the highest levels of

government where everybody has to look at what are the things in my policies that have an impact on broadband. there is obvious things. can we have a dig-once policy with highways? can we lay fiber when roads are opened up for epa sewer grants, and to say we are going to get intro specktive in our agents, but not because of malice of forethought but we never thought about it impact is really important. i went through the list. there are, you know we're dealing with poles and we are expanding lifeline. the privacy issue, which i think probably we just had a sentence

or two in there about it it's integral to the growth of broadband. if consumers worry that they don't have sufficient privacy online, why are they going to use online? so we need to deal with that. there is a generic issue from an analog based environment to an ip environment. we want that to happen. so many of the things that we are going to be dealing with is how do you encourage that transition, but at the same point in time how do you make sure that you don't decouple it with the societal protections

that always existed in terms of our relationship with networks? so that becomes a huge component of where we are going. >> yeah. i want to switch topics from the networks to the adoption side and start by just noting an interesting announcement by the march kul foundation by the way of upgrading skills of american workers as well as helping them find jobs by using link tin and using that flat form it talks about tying to the education and not just in the classroom and part of it is everybody has access to broadband where they live, and this, of course, brings up the lifeline proceeding that you are now looking at. one of the things that was curious to me was the press focused on the political disagreements, but as i read beneath them, there did seem to be three core principles that i

think there was actually a consensus about. number one broadband is the co-communications product service, and when they talk about universal service, it's going to be broadband. secondly, the problems of waste fraud and abuse really come from the fact that we have carriers do the certification, and i am not blaming carriers but that process leads to that, and there are many ways -- we need to take that certification responsibility away from the carriers. the third is we need to use market forces more effectively to increase the value that the participants get. am i seeing that wrong? there was a lot of focus on the partisan disagreement but on those three principles i thought there was actually kind of an agreement. >> i think that's correct. it's a matter of degree but i think you have outlined the three corners, if you will, the three legs of the stool.

>> i might note ron klain who i know you know and has many jobs in government and i am going to ask one more question and then we will open it up for questions from the answers and we are going to run about five minutes late or over our original time. i want to start by saying you are the first non-lawyer chairman in quite a while at the fcc so in particular i want to congratulate you on two major victories in the courts the other day on both -- >> i wrote them all personally. >> yeah, i know. i was very impressed. you were ready to argue the case -- >> exactly uh-huh. >> also on the auctions. but i want you -- i always tell you while you are in the job you can't play the historian but you have to be a decision-maker and it's a different thing. when i think back on my first

stint at the fcc, there were a couple decisions that not no controversy and they were largely ignored but in the fullness of time we saw them as being far more important. one was speeding up the digital television transition, and by virtue of getting that spectrum out in 12 years rather than 30 years which was the original plan, that created the foundation for 4g and then terminating data, and that's a longer story but those things turned out to be incredibly important. in some ways i think you have done an interesting job of creating -- eliminating and terminating barriers for over the top video that i think is now fully appreciated and if you go forward ten years and look back at your time, what do you think will be the most under appreciated decisions today or

ones that we're not looking at that ten years from now, again, in the fullness of time will say they were really important? >> i don't know if under -- most under appreciated but the ones -- attention that is not being paid to right now, as i indicated in the -- in my remarks, i feel -- we feel very strongly about the incredible opportunity that technology offers to help americans with disabilities solve the challenges that they have, and we have -- the first meeting i had at the commission with any outside group, i asked all the disabled groups to come in and sit down and said let's talk about how we apply technology, solving the challenges of americans with disabilities, and we will keep doing that.

the idea -- we've been through closed captioning and we have been through text to 911, and we have been a program that puts equipment out for people that cannot hear or see but can still use broadband. i talked about this open platform that we are going to have so that people can communicate, and we will keep pressing that agenda because i just basically think it comes down to this, if we are fortunate to exist in a time when technology can be applied to historical barriers that people have never been able to overcome before and we don't seize that and chase that as hard as possible then shame on us. i think that's the thing -- i hope that's the thing we are doing that nobody is really paying attention to but will

have a lasting impact. >> thank you, certainly, for that. with that, let me open it up to questions from the audience. >> reporter: cicil. how do you invasion the over building playing out and how do you envision -- how do you see promoting that given the fact that it's not really cost-effective at this point? >> i think what i was saying is that economics are changing, which i think is encouraging for those that believe in multi-facility-based competitors. i think there is competition that will increase and that's one of the reasons why spectrum and 5g and everything is so important. i think we just cannot accept

the reality that well, there is only going to be one provider and we have to do everything possible to make sure that we are creating an environment for multiple providers. >> the woman in back. not that far back, sorry. >> not that far back. >> sharon boyce. i have been trying to understand this issue for average people because there has been such lobbying about censorship issues and all the different issues, i guess it's propaganda by certain lobbyist, but if you could explain it in one paragraph or a sentence that maybe your mother or an 8-year-old grandchild that would know more about tech than i do actually but if you could explain it quickly to the average people what we are fighting for with the broadband issue, thank you. >> i think it's a simple

question that because broadband is the definitive network of the 21st century we want to make sure it's thoroughly available, that it's fast and growing in terms of its continual increase and that it's open and open means not only open to those that want to pass through it but open to those that want to get access to it so that they can have the benefit of what passes through it. >> right there. >> thank you for coming -- >> can you speak into the mic so people can hear you. >> you talked about how licensed and unlicensed are peanut butter and jelly and not oil and vinegar. >> let me remember that line.

>> i believe that is your line. >> i thought it was chocolate and peanut butter. >> the licensed spectrum holders need to understand they have to accept more tolerance on interference. you have been chairman for about 20 months and you mentioned the oil and vinegar tolerance when you were chairman of the tac. can you outline some or mention some of the success stories you have had of convincing licensed users of sharing that spectrum, and do you have new initiatives on the existing spectrum out there now? >> thank you, and good question. it goes back in part to the question that blair asked a moment ago. there is a process of how you

think about spectrum that is necessarily evolving and it used to always be it's mine, you can't touch it. but because of the increase in demand for spectrum that has to change and sharing has to be an important part of it. i saw a presentation a couple days ago that said something like 60% of licensed mobile traffic is now carried on unlicensed whyi-fi so at one point in time these two were bitter enemies, and i remember at&t they were with unlicensed and everybody said you're giving

away the store. we are going through a evolutionary process in which the outcome has to be the recognition that spectrum is something that has to be shared and that there are definitely rights to make sure that, you know, people don't get walked all over in their capabilities destroyed, but the technology is helping us work our way through. i am a big believer in the future of sharing a limited resource. all the things we are doing in 3.5 and the rule makings we have had, and the spectrum auction the thought of how you share spectrum is in nearly every

spectrum discussion we have. >> the person in the corner there. if we could get the mic over to him, and when chairman wheeler is done everybody stay in your seats and we need to let him get through, and available in amazon, and never hurdzts to quote it final question. >> my question is obviously trying to expand access to broadband is extremely important and i am glad that's your goal but using the right matrix is key to seeing how we are doing on that metric and trying to measure it, and so doesn't reclassify broadband conceal the true process made on the front when your own website lists 15 -- >> i understand what you read but i am not sure what the question is? is 25 mg a bad decision?

it's something like 82% of americans have access to 25 mg and that sounds like a standard to me. >> the key metric i was looking at what specific between rural and urban. if you look at 10 per second which is the previous standard or around there it's like 98% or 97%, and then it goes up to 97 and 50 so it can be confusing to see how much progress we made on the front in terms of getting on the access and that's why i am concerned the 25 is too high? >> if it's 82% or 86%, whatever that number is that's a per se standard, i believe. the point you raise about rural, and what we have done in the universal service fund is to set it at 10 and say we are not going to give you money unless it's at least 10 megs.

i would like to be pointing to at some point in time something beyond 25 mg because the reality is as users increase and contention increases, and you know the average home now has something like seven connected devices, and if they are all going they are going to choke even 25 mg and the increase in applications and usage and the increase in the constantcy of the usage happening all the time are going to push us to higher needs and i want to make sure we don't fall behind in that. >> let me close by saying every chairman faces the dilemma of trying to focus attention on

where we are and where we should be going and i think -- and one of the things i learned when is how do we focus on how to get better where we are going, and you have been doing an enormous amount in your time, and i know you said the key takeaway is pedal to the metal and you will keep going. >> thank you blair. >> everybody stay seated. >> thank you. a look outside the support which ruled there's a constitutional right for gay to marry in all 50 states. the court now holds same-sex couples exercise the fundamental

right to marry and no longer may this liberty be denied to them, and justice kennedy wrote they ask for equal dignity in the law. the court grants them that right. riding the dissent was chief justice john roberts, and he wrote this court is not a legislature, whether same-sex marriage is a good idea should have no baring to us. chief justice roberts was joined in his opinion by the court's three most conservative judges.

when congress is in session c-span 3 brings you more of the best access to congress with live coverage of hearings, news conferences and key public affairs events, and every weekend it's america history tv traveling to historic sites, and eyewitness accounts of events that define the nation. this weekend on our companion network c-span our guest on news makers is julian castro, and he will talk about thursday's supreme court decision on housing discrimination. "news makers" is sunday on c-span. i am not one of those that believes in the psychiatric examination of people, you know. i believe that most of these

people the psycho historian should be on the couch themselves rather than the people they never met. on the other hand when i meet people i don't judge them in terms of whether they have a firm handshake or eye contact but what i try to do when i meet people is listen what they say. you don't learn anything when you are talking, you learn a great deal when they are talking. >> one of the many tragedies of richard nixon, he was self-conscious but not self aware. nixon did have a psychiatrist. he was an internist and not technically a psychiatrist and the doctor said he was careful not to let nixon think he was analyzing, and nixon's head hurt and neck hurt and couldn't sleep and he got mild therapy and even though he went to one, he hated psychiatrists and was always denouncing them, and he was afraid in a way of looking

at himself in a realistic way. i used to write i don't carry grudges. hello? richard nix one was one of the biggest grudge-carrier of all times. his lashing out -- >> the author talks about victories and defeats and enter turmoil of richard nixon sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span's "q & a." more than 30 millions cars in the u.s. have been recalled because of faulty airbags from the japanese company, takata. the committee held a hearing on the issue earlier this week. the head of the national highway traffic safety administration testified along with takata's executive vice president for operations.

good morning. welcome everyone. this hearing will come to order. we've called this hearing for a very somber reason. some defective airbags are hurting rather than helping people. we still haven't figured out exactly why. and we need to figure out how to prevent these issues from occurring in the future. this is a pivotal time in vehicle safety. it's welcome news that cars are generally safer than they ever have been, advances in vehicle technologies and safety innovations as well as robot safety initiatives have reduced the number of deaths on the road. still, tragically more than 30,000 people die every year due to motor vehicle accidents. airbags are one of the most important vehicle safety innovations and that's why it's so alarming that tens of millions of cars have

potentially defective airbags. today we'll be asking witnesses for an update on recall and remedy efforts for takata airbag inflaters which has been allegedly linked to eight deaths and over 100 injuries. the large number of vehicles recalled covers 11 auto manufactures, the lack of recognized root cause to date and the age of vehicles effected have made remedying this problem exceedingly difficult. these do not excuse the responsibilities of auto manufacturers, suppliers and the national highway safety -- i should say traffic safety administration, from their shared obligation to insure vehicles are safe. the first priority should be fixing the recalled vehicles as soon as possible. nsta also has taken a role in overseeing this process. takata and other suppliers have ramped up production of replacement parts to increase supply to contact effected vehicle owners to work with dealerships on swift repairs. nevertheless, questions exist about whether the currently

available replacements are truly safe. takata is phasing out certain types of inflaters and testing is ongoing to determine the root cause or causes of the inflater defects. this testing will help to assess the scope of the recall since safety of replacement parts. these alarming details underscore the importance of clear and accurate information for consumers. ntsa's dedicated takata recall website is an important step, but recall fatigue and confusion are growing. the large number of vehicles involved is resulted in delays for some consumer notice. and the number of times the same vehicle may be subject to recall may further perplex consumers. as we all know completing a recall is not easy with an all-time record last year of nearly 64 million automobiles subject to recall. i appreciate that ntsa and the auto industry are looking for ways to improve the process. identifying safety problems early is another key issue for both the industry and ntsa. i look forward to hearing more about the inspector general's

audit report which raises serious questions about the agency's abilities in this area. the audit identifies many instances in which the agency repeatedly dropped the ball in handling issues related to general motors ignition switch defect. weaknesses in their ability to conduct accurate data analysis call into question whether the agency can identify and investigate to carry out the safety mission. these are disconcerting given the complexity of the takata defects. there have been far too many troubling recalls throughout the agency's existence. this legislation seeks to encourage employees to report safety concerns before they become larger problems to prevent loss of life and serious agencies resulting from safety defects. despite a long vacancy under an

administrator leader, ntsa also looked for ways to improve. a plan for a path forward, but now is the time for accountability. the agency, automakers, their suppliers and dealers in congress must work together to reduce deaths and injuries on our nation's roadways. this committee will continue to conduct oversight of the takata recalls and ntsa vehicle safety efforts. i appreciate takata's general cooperation with the committee's request to date. in fact, we just received another large production of documents from the company a few days ago. some automakers are also producing documents to the committee. i'm sure we'll have more questions for ntsa. it's also important for consumers to check to see if their vehicle is subject to this or any recall. ntsa has a vehicle identification number or v.i.n. lookup tool online at safercar.gov. if you determine your vehicle is subject to a recall, please

schedule an appointment to get it fixed with your closest dealership as soon as possible. now i'm pleased to welcome administrator rosekind with his first appearance before the committee. i also want to welcome inspector general skoval back to the committee and our second full committee hearing on this important issue. so i want to thank all of our witnesses for being here today. i look forward to your testimony. and we'll start with this first panel with mr. rosekind mr. rosekind, proceed. excuse me. i apologize. my mistake. senator from florida, our distinguished ranking member please make your opening statement before we proceed to the panel. thank you, mr. chairman. and, if i may, we've had an investigation done, danger behind the wheel the takata air bag crisis and how to fix our auto broken recall process done by our minority committee staff,

if i may have been entered into the record -- >> without objection. >> thank you for your cooperation on this. and you'll recall, mr. chairman, last year we actually started the hearings on these air bag defects. and the news was not good. at that point last november we had five deaths and dozens of injuries that were tied to the defective takata air bags. we had testimony from an air force lieutenant, lieutenant stephanie erdman. she suffered severe facial injuries and almost lost one of her eyes when her air bag exploded after a relatively minor accident in the florida panhandle near eggland air force

base. but since then the recalls have ramped up appropriately, but unfortunately, the tragedies have continued. january this year, houston, a man killed by a takata air bag that exploded in his vehicle after a minor accident. and then april, a 22-year-old was involved in an accident in lafayette, louisiana. the wreck was serious. but as you can see, look at this air bag. do we have the pictures of the lady?

that's the one from florida, isn't it? okay. hold that back. hold that one back. you can see, now this is a normal air bag deployed. this is the front of what would be facing the driver and the steering wheel. and of course, it deploys. and if it deploys normally, it's supposed to look like that. okay? this is what happened in this case that i just referenced in louisiana. that's blood. but look at the tear in the air bag. you can see that it obviously has been punctured. and instead of it being like that, the shrapnel in the

inflator, which is this device, which is in the steering wheel underneath the steering wheel. and this explodes sending hot gas out and inflating the air bag. well, when it's defective, it explodes with such force that it actually breaks open the metal. and the metal goes out. and then, of course, instead of the air bag saving lives, it's killing people. let me show you. that is a piece of metal that actually came out on this lady.

and this lady is in miami last july. look how big that is. now, that hit her. and thank goodness it hit her there in a relatively superficial wound that is a permanent scar. but what if it had hit her there? or what if it had hit her there? that's the piece that hit her. this is deadly serious business. just last friday we learned of the eighth death, southern california, conclusively tied to

a defective takata air bag. and some of these victims' families got recall notices after their loved ones were killed. and in addition to the eight deaths this committee has learned of allegations of well over a hundred serious injuries. now, i got into this thing because there was a woman killed in orlando. this is a year ago. that's how i got into it. when the police got to the car, they thought it was a homicide. they thought somebody had slashed her throat. and only afterwards did they find out that, in fact, this is what it was. and then i got into it because of a firefighter that lives in the orlando area. he won't be a firefighter again because he lost his eye now.

and so i could go on and on about these incidents just in florida alone. but the bottom line is, we need to get these cars fixed. and we've been talking about this since last year. dr. rosekind has been a breath of fresh air. and you've taken numerous actions to speed up the takata recall process, but nhtsa still faces deep challenges. for one thing, as no doubt you will point out, it's underfunded. it lacks the necessary funding to make sure automakers and the sticks as well as the carrots it

lacks to get the automakers to be forthcoming about the recalls. and by the way, this isn't the only thing. we're not just picking on takata. look how many deaths occurred from the gm defective steering ignition switches. gm hid a defect for over a decade, and at least 114 people died. this is awful. and for that, nhtsa could only fine gm a measly $35 million. and that's less than one-hundredth of a percent of what gm makes in a quarter. and nhtsa also appears to have serious internal and managerial issues.

these challenges were detailed in this department of transportation office inspector general report released yesterday that revealed serious problems in nhtsa's office of defects investigation especially related to the handling of the gm crisis last year. and so i can tell you this senator's going to fight for additional funding for nhtsa. but there also has to be accountability. and the ig report found severe deficiencies in nhtsa's ability to effectively collect and analyze safety data as well as conduct investigations. the agency lacks proper protocols and procedures. and staff apparently are inadequately trained to do their job. we need accountability. and i look forward, doctor, to hearing how you intend to

respond to this report that's now been put in the record and how you continue to modernize the agency. and finally, i look forward to hearing from the representatives of takata. yesterday the staff issued a report detailing its initial findings in a month's long investigation of takata. and for years, it's obvious that takata did not put safety first. it appears that takata knew or should have known as early as 2001. that's 14 years ago. that there were serious safety and quality lapses in its air bag production process. and you'd think that they would have stepped up their safety efforts at these plants after discovering those issues. no. and by the way, there are eight

people dead. instead, internal e-mails suggest they actually suspended global safety audits from '09 to '11 for cost-cutting reasons. and now the same company responsible for this disaster is the one making nearly all of the replacement air bags for most of the recalled vehicles. that doesn't sit well with a lot of americans. and i think takata has some serious explaining to do. so for everyone involved, nhtsa, to automakers, to the suppliers, we need to improve as fast as possible. and we need to get the recall completed, but also make sure that the safety issues are spotted sooner so that dangerous vehicles are identified and fixed faster.

in order to do what we're supposed to do, which is help keep consumers safe. mr. chairman, if i sound that i'm invested in this issue, when i saw the pictures of that woman in orlando with her neck lacerated, i am invested. when i talked to that firefighter with his little boy with him that will never be a firefighter again because he doesn't have an eye, i'm invested. so thank you for calling this hearing. >> thank you, senator nelson. i now proceed to our panel. start with administrator rosekind. please proceed. thanks. >> chairman, ranking member of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to provide an update including defective

takata air bags. the recall of defective takata air bags may represent the largest national safety recall in history and certainly one of the most complicated. all of nhtsa's actions are targeted at achieving one goal. a safe air bag in every american vehicle. on may 19th secretary fox at nhtsa took a step and announced takata at the agency's insistence had filed four defect reports launching national recalls of an estimated 33.8 million defective air bag inflators. 11 auto manufacturers have made available individual vehicle identification numbers so vehicle owners can go to safercar.gov and use nhtsa's tool to find out if their vehicle is under recall. consumers may also request a free loaner or rental vehicle from the dealer while they wait for replacement air bag. after reviewing automaker filings, our current estimate is

that there are about 34 million defective air bags in 32 million defective vehicles. nhtsa issued a dissent among other things gives nhtsa an inability to ensure the adequacy of the remedy. nhtsa is using trrde inging authority by the tread act to prioritize remedy efforts. late last week nhtsa sent information requests to all the affected automakers to takata and other automakers seeking information as part of our remedy program. in addition we've had initial discussions with the affected companies on a protict tective order that would allow them to share information with nhtsa and one another so confidentiality concerns do not interfere with our safety efforts. in a separate action nhtsa is in the process of determining whether if iat chrysler automobile automobiles is --

nhtsa scheduled a july 2nd hearing to examine 22 recalls. and nhtsa we are determined to use every tool available to protect the traveling public. one critical tool is self-evaluation. at the urging of secretary fox with the full support of nhtsa's staff and leadership and before i arrived, nhtsa was involved in tough self-examination after one of the most challenging years in the agency's history. june 5th nhtsa released two reports essential in our efforts to improve our effectiveness. nhtsaae path forward provides the results of an investigation process. we are addressing those weaknesses with improvements already under way and within existing resources. the second report is a workforce assessment that details how the president's fy '16 budget reflects nhtsa's heedneeds.

there are 265 million vehicles we monitor. it provides one possible path toward matching nhtsa's workforce to those challenges. secretary fox's request the department of transportation's inspector general performed an audit of nhtsa's investigation of the gm switch defect. nhtsa thanks inspector scovel. it's a helpful contribution to our efforts. we've concurred with all 17 of the report's recommendations. to date, we have implemented or initiated 44 separate changes to improve our effectiveness. that include efforts to address 10 of the 17 recommendations from the ig's audit that were under way before the audit's release. two factors outside the scope of the audit are essential to nhtsa achieving its mission. the first is gm's concealment of critical safety information from nhtsa. our process improvements in a

single phrase it would be question assumptions. question the information nhtsa gets from industry and question our own assumptions. the second factor also outside the scope of the inspector general's audit is resources. the same 51 people managing the takata retail include eight that analyze consumer xlants 1200 recall campaigns under way and 16 others continue to investigate scores of potential defects. the agency must accomplish this was a budget that when adjusted for inflation is 23% lower than ten years ago. the president's fy '16 budget request would provide the people and technology needed to keep americans safe. secretary fox proposed the grow america act which would provide stable increased funding and important safety authorities to help nhtsa in our mission. it's clear gaps in available personnel represent safety risks. they can help nhtsa address

those risks and keep the traveling public safe. thank you for this opportunity to testify. i look forward to your questions. >> thank you, administrator rosekind plp scovel. >> chairman thune, ranking member nelson, members of the committee. thank you for inviting me to discuss nhtsa's safety vehicle oversight. strong oversight is critical for taking timely actions such as gm's faulty ignition switch. as of this month this defect has been linked to more than 110 fatalities and 220 injuries. air bag nondeployments prompted nhtsa's office of defects investigation to look at certain gm vehicles as early as 2007. but odi ultimately determined an investigation was not warranted. we now know that the faulty ignition switch can unexpectedly disable the power steering, power brakes and air bags. today, i will discuss the weaknesses we identify relating to odi's procedures for collecting and analyzing vehicle

safety data and for determining which issues warrant further investigation. i will also show how the weaknesses we identified affected odi's handling of the ignition switch defect. we identified three areas of weakness in nhtsa's vehicle safety procedures that undermine its efforts to identify and investigate vehicle safety concerns. first, odi lacks the procedures needed to collect complete and accurate vehicle safety data. the use of odi's early warning aggregate data is limited due to the inconsistencies how manufacturers categorize safety incidents. odi specifies 24 categories for reporting potential defects related to an average of over 15,000 vehicle components. leaving manufacturers to use broad discretion when reporting these data. consumer complaints, odi's primary source for identifying safety concerns, similarly lack

information to correctly identify the vehicle systems involved. due in large part to the lack of guidance to consumers. further, odi does not adequately verify manufacturers data or take timely action to enforce manufacturers compliance with reporting requirements. second, odi does not follow standard statistical practices in analyzing early warning reporting data. consequently, it cannot identify statistically significant trends or outliers that may indicate a safety issue should be pursued. in addition, despite the volume of consumer complaints which averaged roughly 330 a day in 2014, odi relies on one initial screener in the first phase of its two-tiered screening process. this process leaves the office vulnerable to a single point of failure. and it runs the risk that complaints with potential safety

significance may not be selected for further review. inadequate training and supervision of screeners further increase this risk. third, odi emphasizes investigating issues that are most likely to result in recalls which has blurred the line between pre-investigative and investigative duties. investigative duties such as research and engineering analysis work are being performed during the pre-investigative phase, often by screeners who are not trained to carry out these responsibilities. in addition, stakeholders within odi have not reached consensus on the amount and type of information needed to open investigations. and odi does not always document the justifications for its decisions not to investigate potential safety issues. this lack of transparency and accountability in odi's investigation decisions further undermines nhtsa's efforts to

identify recalls and other kreblth corrective actions. these three procedural weaknesses impeded odi's handling of the gm ignition switch defect. from 2003 through 2013, gm submitted over 15,000 nondealer field reports and about 2,000 death and injury reports on vehicles that would ultimately be subject to the ignition switch recall. however, inconsistently miscategorized reports may have masked potential safety defect trends. for example, gm did not assign a component code to a death and injury report. not air bags, not electrical, not ignition. even though a state trooper's report indicated that the ignition switch was involved in the accident and a possible cause of air bag nondeployment. in addition at least 12 gm nondealer field reports categorized by gm under air bags and that may have been related to the ignition switch defect were not reviewed before the

recall because nhtsa's analytical tools could not read the report format used by gm. a fact odi staff did not note until after the recall. odi staff also missed opportunities to connect the gm ignition switch to air bag nondeployments. for example, odi employees overlooked documentation on a fatal accident involving a 2005 cobalt that linked the ignition switch defect to the vehicle's air bag nondeployment including a state trooper's accident investigation report in a nhtsa special crash investigation report. calls for investigation were similarly overlooked. for example, in 2007 nhtsa's associated administrator noted that investigation proposal "looks like one we want to jump on and learn as much as we can quickly." while a screener was assigned to monitor the issue, the defects assessment division chief did not reassign responsibility after the screener left nhtsa in

2008. in 2010 an odi screener suggested revisiting the 2007 investigation proposal on air bag nondeployments because of new consumer complaints. however, the air bag investigator identified a downward of complaint of vehicles so the screener decided the issue did not present enough of a safety trend to warrant another investigation. according to odi staff there were no discussions of the ignition switch defect that in fact caused air bag nondeployment prior to gm's february 2014 recall. in hindsight odi officials told us that they did not understand the safety consequences of the ignition switch defect and had a flawed understanding of air bag technology. nhtsa has committed to taking aggressive action to implementing the 17 recommendations we made to strengthen vehicle safety oversight. according to the administrator, extensive changes have been

implemented, and more are under way. oig's audits and investigations support nhtsa's oversight mandate. our agents played a critical role in the multiagency criminal probe of toyota and continued to actively pursue allegations of criminal conduct related to vehicle safety. our auditors are currently assessing nhtsa's actions to implement recommendations we made in 2011 and plan to report our findings later this year. mr. chairman, with your permission i would like briefly to address those who've been injured and the families of those who've been lost in crashes involving gm's defective ignition switches. when testifying before this committee last year, i promised you that my staff and i would work relentlessly to determine what nhtsa knew of the defect, when it knew it and what actions nhtsa took to address it. our audit report issued last week and my testimony today fulfill that promise. i offer you again my deepest sympathy. this concludes my prepared

statement. i'd be happy to answer any questions that you, mr. chairman, and other committee members may have. >> thank you, mr. scovel. administrator rosekind, i know you only took the helm at nhtsa at the end of last year and i know you've been working to improve handling of vehicle defects. and i would say you have your work cut out for you. the inspector general's report reaches some serious conclusions regarding nhtsa's ability to detect vehicle defects highlighting things like failure to review information provided by both industry and consumers, botched data analysis, inadequate training and supervision as major problems for the agency. all of these have to concern you. and while we have to ensure that automakers properly report safety violations, it doesn't help if nhtsa staff are not even reviewing the information, or if when they do they aren't employing proper statistical

analyses to effect defects. nhtsa isn't following basic best practices and these are problems that can't be solved just by throwing additional resources at the problem. so my question is how do you propose to address these issues? >> thank you for acknowledging the challenges that exist and are ahead. we've concurred with all 17 of the recommendations. they validate and are consistent with our two reports as well. i would like to provide to the committee a list of 44 actions we already have under way, 10 of the 17 are addressed in those. and they get exactly to detailed action on each of these elements. from communication to case management to statistical tests to make sure that every one of those -- and i'm just highlighting there were 17 in their report. our total actions are already up at 44. we will continue to look for every place possible we can make changes. i'll just add i think we will look for all the internal changes we can, but what's also

critical about the report, though it's outside -- the report to talk about the resources, so many people have heard me discuss 80,000 complaints. we are literally looking at an individual screener having to have five reports analyzed every hour. each of those reports actually takes an hour. so when the ig report says it's inadequate, i agree. and we have to change those. >> you identified three general areas of concern in your audit. the pre-investigation practices of nhtsa's office of defects investigations, in your opinion what does nhtsa need most? more information, more expertise, better practices for reviewing and analyzing data they already receive? >> thank you, mr. chairman. right now i would say the onus is on nhtsa to press forward with the process changes we have outlined in our audit report and in my testimony today. very pleased to understand that the administrator has concurred

in all 17 of our recommendations. and, in fact, in his response to our audit report last week indicated a very aggressive schedule signaling his intent to press forward as quickly as possible. i understand the administrator's request for resources. that ultimately represents a policy decision between the administration and the congress. i'm fully cognizant of that and respect my role. however, i would have to say that allocating more resources to an effort or to an agency whose processes are not in line in the first place does not seem like a good idea. we would urge the administrator to press forward with his aggressive timeline as well as his own process improvements that he's identified in order to best position himself for success no matter what the policy decision may be regarding additional resources. >> mr. rosekind, you've recently taken some unprecedented steps with regard to nhtsa's handling

of the defective takata inflators including a preservation order and consent order in announcing efforts to coordinate a remedy program. how does the agency plan to implement this program? >> and thank you for acknowledging the effort there. it was this committee that really helped focus for the entire country this issue. that changed on may 19th. we went from denying a defect to acknowledging a defect and national recalls and consent order which allows us to evaluate the remedy and the coordinated remedy program. more advanced prioritizization. we've been in touch with all 11 manufacturers. and seven potential supply folks and have sent them a letter that outlines the information we need to determine how this needs to proceed. so the first meeting is schedule forward july 1 with each of those individual groups that will be both individual and

group meetings through july with our hope that august will take all that information and put it all together. planning for a public hearing in september that would allow us to lay out the program, which is very complicated. >> and mr. scovel could you discuss the difficulties that nhtsa has encountered in receiving consumer complaints and how would clear guidelines benefit the public? >> in receiving complaints, mr. chairman, we would highlight a couple of things for the committee's attention. first in the way that nhtsa collects the data. the data quality has to be an ultimate concern for nhtsa to identify vehicle safety defects because if that data is not of the highest quality then defects will be missed and resources may be squandered. so the accuracy and the completeness and the timeliness of the data submissions is essential. and that data comes from a number of different sources.

early warning data from the manufacturer. that process needs to be improved which we've shown and nhtsa has acknowledged and the categorizing problems or defects means that the data quality is diluted or diffuse and the best analysts at nhtsa or anywhere in the world will not be able to reach a proper conclusion on data that is unsupportable. and we would also note and i commend the administrator for his attention to that and his remarks that they intend to follow up with manufacturers for more often. in our interviews of every single employee in the office of defects investigation and a representative of each of the contractors that works in that effort, we learned from the highest sources in that office that they generally employ what they call an honor system to determine whether manufacturers

are meeting requirements to submit this early warning data. for a regulator to take that approach we think is not keeping the best safety interest of the public in mind. consumer complaints which has been the primary source for nhtsa to identify safety concerns are also difuse have also been watered down in effect because of a lack of guidance from the agency to consumers who were seeking to report accidents and defects to the agency. but who find themselves at a loss when confronting on the website 18 different category codes in a vehicle that has 15,000 components and they themselves are not automotive experts. certainly some consumers are going to get it wrong. but many others the most well

meaning and those whose families have been impacted by safety defects will read the data and read the guidance and attempt to follow it as best they are able. the agency performance will improve as a result. >> thank you, mr. scovel. senator nelson. >> you know there is a pattern here among the regulatory agencies that are supposed to be looking out for the consumer. we saw this about ten years ago when the consumer product safety commission when we had all of that chinese drywall problem. the defective chinese toys and so forth. and they had a card table was their research department. so, too, we are now hearing stuff about the agency that you are trying to straighten out, mr. rosekind. tell me, you all came up with 33.8 million vehicles to be recalled on this takata matter.

how did you come up with that number? >> so our estimate is that there are about 34 million inflators that are defective. and they are in about 32 million vehicles so that is acknowledgment that some vehicles have both driver and passenger air bags that need to be replaced. it also includes that some cars with interim remedies that need to come back again and that is why 34 million inflators in 32 million vehicles. >> and do you have the vehicle makers. >> yes. those have been provided by all the vehicle manufacturers at this pont. >> and you heard about the office of defect investigations. what do you think you need to do to ensure that odi does not miss

the next gm ignition defect or the next takata air bag crisis? >> this is why we have fully concurred with all 17 recommendations. they all need to be addressed. that is why i'm going to submit to you our list of 44 total actions going on that get to the processes that we are discussing. it's an ongoing issue. we can't stop looking. i can give you 44 areas. i can give you plenty of examples. but i'll give you the list. but it needs to make sure it's on a continual basis we can improve the processes and do it faster and better. >> okay. i want do suggest to you one area. in this odi, as the inspector general has just talked about, about 80,000 complaints each year, yet there is one person

who conducts the first review of these complaints, and this particular person has other duties. so spending 50% of that person's time doing other things. so if you do the math, that person who spends four hours a day on this would have to review, process and follow on and flag over 80 complaints an hour. that is less than one complaint a minute. so how in the world can you get it done? >> you can't. and that is why i agree with the ig's report. it specifically called out the scanning of the reports of being inadequate, and it is. and you just pointed out that is a resource issue. you have too many complaints and not enough people. that original person is a triage point to try to get it somewhere

else, but it is just overwhelming. >> all right. i'm going to yield the rest of my time because i want our members to go on and get a chance to get in this. >> thank you, senator nelson. senator mccaskill is up next. >> thank you, mr. chairman and senator nelson, for your incredible focus on this issue as the chairman and the ranking know, we obviously did a lot of hearings around the gm recall and a lot of hearings around nhtsa. i want to first begin with rental car safety. honda confirmed on friday that the eighth death linked to a faulty air bag occurred last september in california. this was a rental car from sunset car rental in san diego that never made the repairs after the recall. i, along with senator schumer and others have legislation pending that would prohibit a rental car from -- car from being rented at a rental car agency until open safety recalls

are, in fact, remedied. we have the support of the rental car industry and the consumer and safety advocates insurance companies and general motors, but unfortunately many auto manufacturers are blocking this legislation right now through the alliance of automobile manufacturers. they've opposed this legislation. they are saying they should only be grounded if there's a do not drive recall. let me ask you dr. rosekind, have any of the 11 manufacturers issued a do not drive recall related to the faulty air bags? >> not that i'm aware of. and annually, that number is very small. >> and what about nhtsa, do you support the efforts we have ongoing to try to ground rental cars that have not been repaired? >> absolutely. >> i would like to put into the record the american car rental association and consumer for auto safety rehabilitation -- their written statement for the record, if i might.

>> without objection. >> i now want to go to this audit, and my colleagues are patient with me because i'm a audit weirdo. i used to be an auditor and i read this stuff and mr. scovel knows i'm somebody who consumes these things. this audit report is one of the worst i've ever seen in terms of a government agency. and the reason it is so bad, i agree, mr. scovel, this isn't about resources. this is about blatant incompetent mismanagement, mr. rosekind. let's go through one of many shortcomings. and this is one that just jumped out at me. "when to open an investigation." now if nhtsa can't clear about when to open an investigation, we might as well shut it down.

the inspector general found there are three factors to be considered about an investigation. rate of consumer complaints, severity of potential safety issues and identification of root cause. now, here is the scary part. based on the interviews the inspector general did, there is disagreement within your agency over when an investigation can even be opened. the general counsel said severity must be established for all cases along with frequency and root causes. the odi inspection chief said all three should be met and the odi director does not think a root cause is necessary and prefers a focus on safety consequences. and the odi two investigative chiefs believe a root cause is not necessary. so you have key personnel within your agency not even on the same page about when an investigation should occur.

i assume that you are getting busy on this as a baby step before you get at all of the other problems that are in this audit. >> there are 44 distinct actions that we are taking. that's one of them. these people are now in the same room determining what that criteria and threshold should be. >> and do you believe that everyone that works there knows what their authorities are? do you believe that there is a clear understanding about what the investigative authorities are at nhtsa? >> i think the people that have the specific authorities assigned to them are aware of those. but you've just highlighted where those lines have been blurred and clarifications are needed. >> on average, only four times a year over the past four years has odi requested underlying documentation for death and injury reports. four times a year. that, to me, is stunning.

and although you have the authority to inspect manufacturers records for compliance with early warning requirements, nhtsa officials told the ig they have never used this authority. never used the authority to inspect manufacturers' records for compliance with early warning requirements. listen, i think you are doing your best. i think you understand the severity of the situation before you. but i was shocked when i read this ig report, how bad it was. i knew it was bad when the acting director before you didn't even know you had subpoena power. we discovered that in a previous hearing. so we're going to be watching very carefully, mr. rosekind the kind of work you do immediately. and i disagree with my colleague. i'm not about to give you more money until i see meaningful progress on reforming the internal progresses in this organization.

you can't start throwing money into this agency until you see it run like it is supposed to. thank you mr. scovel. thank you for working so hard since you've been there. it is not fair to blame you, i think you are trying to get the place shaped up and we have a long way to go and i think we should do a follow up every four to six months to see how they are doing on the ig's list because i think the driving public deserves so much better from the cop on the beat. thank you. >> thank you, senator klobuchar. >> i think it is important to follow up and see something happen on the follow up like takata did after that. after we saw that takata air bags were susceptible to recall after high humidity areas and

they finally expanded the recall nationwide for certain types of driver and passenger side air bags and one of those affected was sasha. she was permanently blinded and was a passenger in a car and not even going fast in a car. what does nhtsa need to do to compel companies to act sooner? >> partly what we are looking at besides resources are authorities. and other resorts within d.o.t. are hazard. if a hazard is identified we could take the air bags off the streets much sooner than what happened in this situation. so there are a variety of authorities. >> and would that be established by law? >> yes. authorities, you, congress, have to provide to the agency. >> and would the daily civil penalties that nhtsa levied against ta talka were they helpful in getting them to act?

>> yes and i think what you are pointing out is we were able to go to $14,000 a day, which is the maximum, but on our list of authority s authorities, that is another one. and we're looking for $300 million. >> very good. last month nhtsa filed a notice of intent to file a remedy program for takata air bag to consider whether and if so how nhtsa will organize and prioritize the recall and remedy programs. how is nhtsa approaching the replacement to ensure that the vehicles most at risk are replaced first? >> that is why we've just sent out information letters to all of the 11 manufacturers and the seven suppliers and collecting information to put a plan together to do just that. people have talked about an accelerated remedy. this is more than just making it go faster. it is prioritizing to make sure

people identified for risk which has to do with age, geography, driver's side. those people need to make sure they are replaced as soon as possible. >> and switching to the gm issue, which you also are aware of, we have a case of the natasha riding with her friends in a 2005 chevy cobalt on a wisconsin country road and without warning the electrical power went out and the car barreled ahead at 71 miles per hour. natasha and another passenger were killed when it ran into a tree. the report found that wisconsin state trooper keith young conducted an investigation into the crash that clearly made that link. this is a state trooper in wisconsin. between the defective ignition switch and the failure of the air bag to deploy and cracked the code that evaded gm and nhtsa for years. and he wrote, the two front air bags did not deploy and the ignition switch was returned from the run position to

accessory prior to the hit with the trees. and i would like to know what systems nhtsa has put in place to ensure if the office of defect investigation investigators are in possession of critical information like trooper young's report. i would like some assurance they are now acting. >> and i'm going to start by acknowledging this committee, whether it's your opening statementor the fact that each of you talks about one of the tragedies. you put a face to the tragedies going on. it is critical for people to know these are real people being affected so thank you all for doing that. and i would say specifically, we did talk about this in my confirmation hearing and we have new systems in place such as a case management system that allows the crash investigators and the screeners and panels to look at this from multiple

sources in all in one place. it's an attempt to connect the dots to the people working on this so they have all the available information. >> and there were 260 complaints over an 11-year period that the gm ignition had turned off while they were driving. how does that change work in effect? >> we're talking about panels and screeners that have access to that information. and previously the person responsible for that case didn't get an alert there was updated information and now we have new data and that individual that was responsible gets all of the information in one place. >> okay. very good. i'll probably have some more questions for the record, but thank you, senator thune and senator nelson. >> and next up is the ranking member, somebody like senator

nelson very up to date. senator blumenthal. >> i want to thank my -- express my thanks for this issue and to my distinguish colleague from florida, thank you for your very eloquent and powerful statement. i want to pursue some of the lines that have been raised already, lines of questioning that reflect the real-life consequences as you've just said, mr. rosekind. just to show you first, one of the air bags that actually bears the marks of the, in effect, exploding shreds of metal that so injured eight people that they were killed and many others. but the real fault is not with the air bag. there's no blood on the air bag.

some may say legitimately there is blood on the hands of takata executived who covered up and concealed the devastating effects. the fault is really with this device, the inflator, because it contained a substance that caused this explosion, the ammonium nitrate when moistened became explosive. and the question for takata today is whether these devices are any safer than they were when they killed eight people. and evidence may well show these inflators are as dangerous today as they were when takata first learned they were potential

killers some years ago, as early as 2004 and 2006, that they are as dangerous today and should be completely revamped and revised in their basic design and structure which takata has not yet done. 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 nurmmber is at least 117 because of the findings of the compensation fund that gm established only after i and others on this committee called for them to do it. that number of eight may well grow. it may be only the tiny fractional tip of the iceberg of death that was caused by these

exploding air bags. and so i believe, as has been stated, that this report is a searing, devastating indictment of an agency that was responsible for protecting the public. but 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. i think that that record of cover-up and concealment is one of the low points in corporate conduct, and it represents the need to strengthen not only the

agency that you had, mr. rosekind. we need to strengthen that agency, not strangle it. we need to provide more resources and funds, not cut. but a cop is only as good as the legal tools that she has. a cop is only as good as the laws that are in force. and so i have proposed, along with my colleagues, senator markey, senator nelson, a collection of new laws that will strengthen your legal tools. we can use all of the rhetoric we want in this room, in press conferences in public forum, but the rhetoric is no good without real action and institutional change and new laws that give you the tools you need. so, for example, eliminating the caps on penalties, not just raising them, but eliminating

the caps on penalties for nondisclosure. the early warning reporting act that will give you the mandate to establish a database that is useful to consumers so they can take action to protect themselves. the automaker accountability act that i've proposed as well as criminal penalties imposed not just on the companies but on the corporate executive when they cover up or conceal defects. and as my colleague senator mccaskill has already said, rental car companies need to be held accountable. but also used car dealers. at least one of these takata deaths occurred as a result of a used car and very often the manufacturers and the dealers can't find the present owner of a car because he or she has

bought it as a used car. automobile manufacturers and new car dealers are required to repair safety recalls before selling recalled vehicles under current law, but there is no requirement that used car dealers fix any outstanding safety defects before selling a used car, and this gap in consumer protection puts people at risk. so i think there are a number of preventive acts that can be taken and not the least of them is that any settlements, such as happened with the gm ignition defect, be disclosed fully. secret settlements ought to be banned, and that is why i proposed the sunshine in litigation act with senator graham, and i hope to revive it again this challenge.

and i want to know, whether you will join me, mr. rosekind, in seeking these basic fundamental reforms that will be important going forward. we can -- a lot and blame as much as we wish for the failures of the past and there have been deadly failure, but repairing this system and reforming it going forward ought to be our concern and it is not just oversight, it is addressing these problems with new legislation, giving you new tools and your successors so there is real institutional change. >> and i just wanted to start by saying thank you because, yes, what you've seen over the last months is nhtsa's willingness to use all authorities and tools available to us to get action. if we don't have the authorities or as a maximum authority in effect, we can't do our job. so yes, we will provide support and any assistance with those

authorities. >> and you need more resources, do you not? >> absolutely. >> in fact, the faa, i think, has something like 30 times your budget and 6,000 employees as compared to your 90. is that not a glaring deficiency, does not reflect a lack of investment in your agency and in the safety of our roads and drivers? >> and you're citing a chart in our workforce assessment that makes that comparison. so with under 500 deaths and major aviation accidents they have over 60,000 agencies and in the rail agency they have under 10 and close to 700 professionals and we have in 2013, more lives lost on our roadways and we have under 90 employees dealing with those. >> if our airplane and air space

were as dangerous as our cars and our 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 drip by drip, crash by crash tragedies that have been detailed here. and this nation has to make the kind of investment in your agency that laudably it has made in the safety of our air space. thank you. >> i have senator markey followed by peters, followed by heller followed by danes. we have a vote going on. if you want to proceed, i would like to wrap the first panel up as quickly as possible. i will go over and vote. if we get to the end of people that want to ask questions we'll gavel it out and recess and pick it up as soon as we get through with the vote. senator. >> thank you mr. chairman, very much.

dr. rosekind, senator blumenthal and i have the early warning safety improvement act that required automakers to automatically provide more documents about defective cars to nhtsa and then requires nhtsa to make more of that information available to the public so that it can protect itself. and we can't get back the 117 people whose lives were lost to the gm ignition switch defect. we can't get back the eight people whose lives were taken by exploding takata air bags. but dr. rosekind, you do have, right now, the authority to implement many of the changes that the markey/blumenthal early warning reporting bill requires. you can take permanent measures, even without a new law, to put information about fatal defects into the hands of the public in case nhtsa's analysts fail to

spot the next ignition switch or exploding air bag defects. can you look at the families children spouses, siblings because of these defects and you can tell them you did everything to make sure their lives weren't lost in vein. dr. rosekind will you call for a nhtsa rule-making to require automakers to provide the early warning documents that alert them to potentially fatal defects to nhtsa and to have nhtsa then make this information public? >>. >> the agency and i will do everything we can with the transparency of the agency. numerous examples already raised. if the information were available, that could help to save lives. our interest would be to look at that and make sure our legal requirements relate to confidentially won't impede that objective.

>> will you do a rule-making, dr. rosekind, in order to enable to make sure the information goes to your agency and then the agency discloses it to the public so they can protect themselves? >> i will commit to looking at what shape that could look like knowing our current legal obligations. very simply, the manufacturers have that data. they don't have the federal restrictions we do related to confidentiality and privacy, for example. they could post that now. >> will you do a rule-making doctor, consistent with the privacy act and confidential proprietary information to ensure through the rule-making that any information which you can make public will be made public and that the auto industry will be forced to give you that information? will you conduct a rule-making to achieve that goal? >> i will determine whether -- whatever we can do for transparency, i'll determine

whether or not a rule-making is even needed. >> so you will do everything then allowed by law tone sure that the auto industry will provide you with the information about defects and that nhtsa will then release that information? you will do everything that's allowed by existing law? >> that's what we will look into and make sure we can provide that transparency, yes. >> you're saying you don't need a rule-making in order to accomplish that goal? >> that's what i have to look at what the legal conflicts are -- >> will you do a rule-making if one is required after you determine the scope of your authority under your existing rules, will you do a rule-making if it's necessary? >> if the evaluation shows a rule-making would be useful for transparency, yes. >> well, i think that's very important. i think that will really give the information to the public which they need.

if people can go online to buy a car, they should be able to go online and determine if that car has a defect which could harm a family member. the sooner you put that information up, is the more accountable the industry is going to be. they'll know that that the consumers will be -- the consumers will be protecting their families. the consumers will be able to ensure any successor, nhtsa is accountable and ensuring that that information is made public. senator blumenthal and i have another bill. that says a used car purchased by someone may have a recall that actually ensures that there is a free replacement part but that the person who purchased the used car really doesn't know about it. so our bill would require that

when that new owner registers their cars that they're made aware of the safety defects. simph that those repairs are made. would you support that kind of legislation, dr. rosekind? >> dmv is a very important touchpoint to get those people informed. grow america talks about this, because at this point there's no sense yet of the technology to do that, the cost the procedures, et cetera, and making sure that the consumers basically don't have any negative effects from a defect created by a manufacturer. so, absolutely, dmv is a touchpoint that could be used. and grow america we're suggesting a pilot program to work that technology the cost procedures out, to figure out how it could go national. >> thank you. >> senator markay. >> thank you. i'm doing the heavy lifting with the gavel. senator peters.

>> i hear when you you say the administration needs help. whoa in congress here need to consider increasing your funding as well as having stable funding so you can modernize your crash data collections systems, hire additional electronic and technical experts and enhance the office of defects investigation. but before that happens, i'm sure you know very well you must prove your agency can actually do this effectively. and have in place the procedures that can ensure the work is done in a timely manner. you know as well as anybody, time is of the essence. the more time that elapses, oftentimes means more deaths as a result of problems. and i see in michigan the progress that the auto industry is making for new technology and focusing on collision avoidance and new mitigation and that will make traveling on our nation's

roads much safer smarter, more energy efficient and at the same time, less congested. and i believe congress needs to do its part to help us usher in this new age and this safer mobility and make sure that nhtsa has the resources to not only address the issues it's facing today and one in particular with air bags but also encourage the development of these new technologies that have the potential to save thousands of lives in the future. it will be difficult to secure this funding and the ability to move this incredible technology forward administrator rosekind this recall is of unprecedented scale for the recall and you've introduced initiatives to do this.

you've told our committee about the 17 recommendations of the ig, which reiterate many of the same fijdz of your own internal report and how you anticipate the agency being able to implement these recommendations before the end of the year. sir, can you say that nhtsa can adequately coordinate this recall you're in the middle of right now and implement these reforms without more funding from congress? >> we already have that plan in place, that we have to effect this recall with current resources. that's the plan. >> and that will be an opportunity for us to see the effectiveness of your agency to be able to use these resources, to be able to do this in an expedited way? >> correct. to mr. scovel, you've identified certainly an alarming lack of transparency severely deficient workforce both in volume and technical expertise and as i mentioned earlier you've -- and

you mentioned here, you have 17 recommendations and nhtsa kp concurred. steps taken and you have intimate knowledge of this agency as a result of your work. do you believe this agency is capable of making these changes and how long do you think it will take? >> thank you senator peters. i would hole the administrator to his work. when he responded to our audit report, he indicated not only concurrent but a very aggressive intent to make good on all of those in a relatively short time frame n 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 his promises, to reform its processes so it may then come to congress and back to the american people and say, we're prepared to handle what we have and, by the way, we may be able to do even a better job should

as a policy matter, we be afforded more resources. but right now, sir, the burden is on the administrator. >> you have set a very aggressive timeline of one year. based on your intimate knowledge, and you have a lot of experience with a lot of different agencies, is that really a realistic timeline? >> it is. i would say that's the administrator's own timeline. we will bird dog these recommendations and the implementation of them as carefully as we have anything else in our long history of providing oversight for the department safety regulatory agencies. >> well, we'll be with you working closely. that's always been my frustration when you sometimes get recommendations from the i.g., there's lip service but never follow-through and one year turns into two years and three years and in the case of the work of this agency, these

are people's lives at stake. and we need to have a robust regularity that is also able to help us in the industry in the auto industry in this country, to move to even more dramatic safety improvements with some of the v2v and v2i technologies coming back. i look forward to working with you gentlemen, thank you. >> senator peters thank you. mr. rosekind, looks like you and i have going to have a one-on-one conversation. mr. scovel, it's not because i don't appreciate your work. and i do appreciate both witnesses being here. and i will i don't think i'll complete the questioning. we'll have more members back. if not, we'll hopefully go back to recess before they do. i want to talk about this gap in consumer protection that others are talking about and last saturday i dropped