that is proverbs 29:18. unless we have visionary leadership, not only in the moment but in this movement, without visionary leadership, we will continue to see our villages in crisis. i represent one of the anchor institutions in every community. that is the local church. it is a nondonimnational church and the heart of new orleans. at the end of the day, the faith community, the business community, the government community, there has to be the connectedness that cedric talked about.

if we begin to work as a country the coalition building. we can't just dialogue and walk away and say, we had a great evening. i would hope that notes are taken and we can begin to talk about how to build on the takeaways. otherwise, we are going through the motions, the processes of coming together. although this can become more of an aggregate, if we would put it in writing and declare in new orleans, cincinnati, atlanta, across the country. we would have more discussions like this that are purposeful. again, we walk away with solutions. i go back to short-term, long-term. this will not happen overnight.

there are things that can be done immediately in every community with a great leadership, visionary leadership. inquiring of the lord as to what we need to do. it doesn't take everybody doing it. if we can entrust not only the elected leaders, but as i said earlier, people on the ground. people every day who have voices that are never heard. if we can begin to process ways with which we hear more about young people, not just protesting, but an equal number of them sitting at home with ideas. how do we coalesce all of that? young people, not just to say, in every community and neighborhood, we have come up with solutions. action-oriented solutions. where we have conceptualized

actionable solutions for every neighborhood to begin to turn itself around. just on this one issue. building trust. building trust between police and everyday citizens. in new orleans, that trust is already there in some parts of the city. in other parts of the city, it has never been there. that is why, oftentimes, we are called the tale of two cities. we don't lack resources. we lack togetherness. my time is up. thank you for yours. [applause] >> a good preacher knows what two amens mean. there was no way to cover all the things that needed to be covered.

i think the conversation was a good one. i know one of the things mentioned was young people. next time there is a panel like this, i hope we have a young person on the panel. if there is an answer to the things that ails us, it is coming from the minds and hearts of young people. so often, they are the brunt of what is being dealt with but we seldom ask them to be in the solution process. one of my mentors is in the house. dr. ben. he was part of the wilmington 10. he personified young people at a time that understood no matter what, they had to move and act in a way they thought was necessary. i have seen him and others work with young people all over the country. even when they are angry, they give us insight on the direction we need to take.

when we are talking about community policing, many of the young people are the ones being policed. i hope as we talk about solutions, one of the solutions is ensuring we never have a conversation of any kind without young people being at the table and part of the solution. if we do, we continue to talk about them as opposed to with them. i hope we take that as one of the solutions. thank you, gentlemen, for your insights, your experience. i would like to say thank you to both of the organizations that have been involved to come together to make the panel a reality. the memorial foundation as well as the law enforcement museum -- it is a foundation? i just want to put foundation,

because i was going to say you need to give them money. i thought you would agree with that. these organizations do need to be supported. there are many people who want to have the conversation but don't want to bring people together not normally involved. we should continue to support that. hopefully we can make this digital go on the road. thank you for allowing me to be your moderator. have a fantastic evening. [applause] >> let me close by saying how proud i am we were able to partner with the national law enforcement officer's memorial fund. and with the memorial foundation, the group that built the martin luther king jr. memorial.

what i love the about this evening, we are in a unique position to bring together some of law enforcement's top leaders. don't want to bring people when we ask people like to come and have a discussion, they dropped what they were doing and they were here. you were kind enough to give us jeff and reverend watson. you have so many great leaders in your organization. if we could simply partner up, these are men and women who want to help people, bring their community together. and given the chance, they will do that. i love the ideas that were spoken tonight. i think the philosophies -- we are all seemingly on the same page.

but as the reverend eloquently said, we have to continue this conversation. it has to be more than conversation. goals,to be setting making those goals, and have the right leaders to do so. i think between organizations, we can make that happen. thank you for being here. thank you to the panelists. have a good evening, ladies and gentlemen. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2014] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> this weekend on newsmakers, california representative linda sanchez, the incoming chair of the hispanic caucus talks about legislation in congress, the president's executive order, and the role of women in congress. that is sunday at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. eastern on c-span. here are a few of the comets we have received from viewers. >> i'm in my 80's. i'm a big fan of c-span. i want to compliment them on being able to bring together two different ideologies like they from the catong institute and the immigration policy center. i think you need more programming that way among people who can conduct

themselves with a very civil tone, and i applaud you for that. overcome to be reach a common ground, and i think there should be more programming to that effect. thank you very much for c-span. i listen to c-span pretty much on a daily, regular basis. i find it to be very informative. they look at all the different politicians so citizens can understand exactly who we elect and what is being done in congress, because it seems to be s undecided ori always fighting. anis important citizens have outlet for them to see what is going on. i appreciate c-span. regardless of whether or not it is popular in mainstream culture, i just want them to know there are young people --

i'm 18 and i watch c-span programming on a regular basis to make sure i understand what's happening in my country. because i truly do care. thank you. tour"erican history starting with the battle of little big horn -- i just watched it in its entirety. it's priceless. so many people of the world do their own selves, but if they watch "american history" they can see themselves in america and why we are such a great and wonderful nation of all the peoples of the world. thank you. >> continue to let us know about what you think about our programs. you can call, ithistory" they cs in america and why we are such a great and wonderful e-mail, or d us a tweet. c-span conversation, like us on facebook, follow us on twitter.

>> republican congress bill cassidy is the winner in the u.s. senate race in louisiana. he defeats three-term senate democrat mary landrieu. republicans are also winners in the two house races decided in louisiana. we have speeches by both of the senate candidates. we begin with senator landrieu. [cheers and applause] >> what a crowd! thank you all for being here. thank you all for being there every day. thank you all for being at my

side with our family fighting for the right thing for louisiana. [cheers and applause] all right. i just called congressman cassidy to congratulate him after a long and tough campaign. i told him that representing the people of this state is the greatest honor that anyone could ever have. [applause] the people of our state have spoken, and while we were working and hoping and praying for a different outcome, i'm so proud that our campaign was open and accessible to voters. talking about issues that are important to the people of louisiana. because where i come from, and you can tell a little bit with this family, there is no quit.

we were excited to work hard. i could never, ever have started this race or finished it if it wasn't for a solid and secure faith in god himself and without my family, my extraordinary husband, frank, who was not only there with me every step of the way -- [applause] not only there with me every step of the way but encouraged me and actually egged me on every step of the way. our beautiful daughter mary. and our wonderful son and daughter-in-law emily and the most precious angel of all, maddox parker snell. you should never put a precious child on the stage with you, they will upstage you every time and he has.

to my mother and father who taught me so much. [applause] two of the most extraordinary leaders this country has ever known. [applause] to all of my brothers and sisters, all eight siblings, their husbands and wives and our beautiful daughter mary. nieces, nephews, and friends, god bless you all. they were out on the street until 8:00 tonight. there are literally hundreds of staffers, but no staffer has been at my side longer and in more of the toughest moments and the most joyful moments than norma jane. [applause] norma jane.

get up here, norma jane. you all know the story. we met when we were 17 years old and she hasn't stopped bossing me around since, all right? and to my current chief of staff, a wonderful promising young leader, don craven. and when our campaign needed a new direction, we reached over and stole one of the best or borrowed one of the best staffers from mitch landrieu, ryan burney. where are you?

ryan. new direction, we reached over so i want to thank all staffers, literally over a hundred, but also the louisiana democratic party that never left our side. karen carter peterson. what an amazing, amazing young woman. and to all, to congressman richmond who has been with us and congratulations to him who won in the primary and the entire leadership. we have elected officials on the stage tonight. there are too many to mention, but i can promise you there is a deep and extraordinary bench of young democratic leaders in this state ready to lead and ready to carry on. now, just briefly on a very sad note, if i could have just a

moment, we had over 3,000 people out working today. so i want to thank all staffers, and like we have been working every day for 18 months. and a young woman that had just started working with us -- but her oldest sister works with the mayor of shreveport -- was fatally struck by an automobile while she was canvassing today. so we want to acknowledge her and her family tonight and we have all been saddened, our hearts are broken. and her family, of course, is in mourning, but karen carter is with them tonight. let me briefly say that it has been nothing but a joy to serve this state for over 34 years. when my amazing father ran for mayor and even prior to that,

44 years ago, he put a great coalition of progressive men and women together from all walks of life, from different racial backgrounds. he fought for openness and opportunity and freedom for all and access to the middle class and security and justice and fairness. we have together built that same coalition, and it is obvious in this room tonight. we have always, always known what we were fighting for. a stronger state. a state more committed to justice. openness and opportunity. regardless of where you were born, what zip code you were born into, or the color of your skin. we may not have won tonight, but we most certainly have won some extraordinary victories. we have stood shoulder to shoulder to secure our coast. defined for the first time in

our state's history a robust stream of revenue that will come into this state long after we are gone -- $250 million a year. [applause] to not only protect our great industries but also our unique and amazing culture that is so worth preserving and so worth fighting for. and that was a tough fight. some people thought it was impossible and many people tried, but the group in this room, my supporters, all of you and our staff made that happen. we have three major military bases in louisiana. barksdale air force base, fort polk, one of the greatest training centers anywhere in the world, and bellchase right here in this region. we have made them stronger. we have built them better. and they are flourishing because of our commitment. [applause] the work that many of us have done for orphans in america, all over the world, strengthening

the foster care system and saying clearly that every child [applause] deserves a forever family and a place to call home. together we have also fought a good, fight and it is no over yet, for healthcare because -- [applause] because to have a strong work force, to have a strong workforce to lift our state and move it forward and to lift our nation forward we have to have a healthy workforce. we have to have a way for people no matter where they work or how they work to be able to have an access to doctors, to nurses, to people that can keep them healthy. they can have security when they sleep at night knowing their children can have access and if they get stricken with cancer or heart disease or diabetes they can't be thrown off the insurance rolls anymore. this is something to be proud of. and i'm glad we fought for it.

we are in a hotel tonight that is named after one of the great deserves a forever family and a leaders of our country, a great name, the roosevelts. i hope you saw that recent story of their life and their contribution. one of my very favorite quotes from teddy roosevelt is the quote about the critic. "it is not the critic who counts. the credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by the cut and sweat and blood and strives valiantly and errs and comes up short, but because there is no effort without error and shortcoming but who does actually strive to do the deeds, who spends themself on a worthy cause and in the end he knows high achievement and at worst if he fails he fails by doing

greatly so that his place shall never be with the cold and timid souls no know neither defeat or victory." for 34 years we fought for some amazing things. [applause] and tonight, honestly, i can tell you all it has been a joy. it has been the joy is in the journey and the satisfaction and reward is in the fight. if you want to spend your life in a worthy cause, choose something that takes longer than your life to achieve and then you know it is worth fighting for. when i look at my young children when you look at my grandson, when i look at the young staffers that are out here, and i have seen you work like i have out in the fields and on the streets and on the farms and big cities and the little towns, talking with voters, but more than that, listening to the voters about their hopes, their aspirations. it has been a great privilege to be able to represent them, to

fight for them in washington. tonight, we have so much to be proud of. a record of courage, honesty, and integrity. and delivering for this state when it mattered the most in some of our darkest hours after katrina, rita, gustav, ike and the b.p. oil spill. so the joy has been in the fight. katrina, rita, gustav, ike and it has been a blessing. a fight worth waging. louisiana will always be worth fighting for. may god always bless us, bless our nation. we thank god for the democracy that we have, for the right of people to vote. we honor and accept the decision tonight, but i cannot tell you all and my family how proud we are to have made a big difference every day for many it has been a blessing. decades and we will continue to do so. thank you so much!

god bless! [applause] [crowd chanting] ♪ [crowd chanting] >> whoa. where did all y'all come from? this victory belongs to you.

thank you! [cheers and applause] this victory happened because people in louisiana voted for a government which serves us but does not tell us what to do. thank you all. think about it. on november 4, the american people sent a message. they sent message that they did not the like the direction our

country was going in. now, if you in this room, our state is the exclamation mark on that message. we echo that, that we want our country to go in a conservative direction. [applause] patience has the power, not a bureaucrat. where we have no shame in using america's natural resources to create better jobs for working families. and where we the people have the power and not the federal government. you have sent that message. thank you very much. [applause] i got a lot of people to thank here. start off with the staff and volunteers. yes! country was going in.

now, we didn't just have people in louisiana. we had alaskans. people from connecticut. massachusetts. we had alabamaians, floridians, texans, oklahomans. whoa. people from idaho. iowa. people from states i didn't know existed. [laughter] this was an american victory. thank you all again. and a special shout out to the campaign team that has busted it to make sure that the louisiana machine did better than the obama turnout machine. whoa. and speaking of shoutouts, senator david vitter and wendy helped us from the very beginning.

just driving the message, so a big shoutout for senator vitter. paul hollis. where are you, man? >> right over here. >> and colonel maynese. as he said, this is not about either of us, it is about our country. and both of these men considered running and both of them ended up coalescing in the conservative movement because it is not about one of us. it is about the future of our country. so thanks to those two guys. gilbert growing the party. whoa! [applause]

congressman angel who grew the party. thank my family. my mother and my mother in law. this is my son. he couldn't make it today so -- we love him. thank my mother and mother-in-law who are at home watching. my daughters. my wife. my grandchild. my brothers, my extended family. wow. oh, my gosh. all of you. we could not -- laura and i could not have done this without your support, without your prayers, your contributions, your work, your sign waving, putting on bumper stickers, wearing red tags. you have made this happen for the last two years.

i received a call from senator landrieu and graciously she congratulated me and wished my family well and senator landrieu should be thanked and we all do for her service to our state and our country. my message to those who support senator landrieu is that i don't care that you voted for senator landrieu, i am here to serve you, too. we can can unite as a state and as a country. [applause] we got a lot of of challenges if anybody hasn't notice. my commitment to you is to listen and learn from you so that we together can address those challenges for our state and for our country. because again, as the colonel

said, it is not about us, it is about the united states of america. each of you in this room cares about our country deeply. i am so honored to be the person you elected to express those concerns. we have got lots of work to do in the future but tonight is a night to celebrate. so god bless you -- i'm sorry? >> by the way, gisele. i get a robo call in spanish, probably cost me votes. gisele. its' her fault if it didn't turn out. god bless you. god bless louisiana. god bless the united states of america. thank you once more. boom! [cheers and applause]

>> republican congressman bill cassidy wins the senate race in louisiana and defeats three-term senate democrat mary landrieu. hold 236 seatsl area that matches the post-world war ii high of the truman administration. republicans cap yuan control of two of the seats. ralph abraham defeated jamie mayo. the gop will expand its current 244-201 advantage in the next congress. one race in arizona is undecided.

>> ann compton who retired on her over 40 years covering the white house and the administrations of gerald ford through barack obama. ande sat and watched him second graders go through very droll. the president was interrupted. i was stoned. i wrote in my notebook. the presidentpts even in front of second graders. the president stood and said he had to go. he went into the side room. then we heard and discovered that it was two airplanes down. two plane crashes in new york. andame out to the pool said, stay right here. i said, no. there are live cameras in the cafeteria and he has to speak there. he did not want to scare the children. he went to the cafeteria. he said i must return to

washington. we raced to the plane. the endorsement and the pentagon was hit. &a."onight on "q >> honda announced a recall with takata air mass. it came from the automakers north executive vice president who was testifying before the house energy subcommittee on commerce, manufacturing, and trade. also at the hearing was takata's auto executives and the acting head of the highway natural board. this is three hours.

>> we want to welcome everyone to our hearing today. for commerce, manufacturing and trade subcommittee. i think this is our -- well, this is our last hearing of this congressional session. assuming no emergency for next week. so, next year mr. burgess, as i understand, is going to take over the gavel for this subcommittee, and so he, even though he is not currently a member of the subcommittee, is joining us today to just kind of get a feel for the importance of the subcommittee.

and certainly the importance of this hearing today. so, the title of this hearing is takata air bag ruptures and recalls. safety recalls are often marked by tragedy. that's what brings it to our attention. but they are even more troubling when they -- the very equipment being recalled is intended to save lives. now this morning we'll begin piecing to the history of a safety defect that became known only by what appears to us as fits and starts. and seemingly has several potential causes. the first known rupture occurred in 2004 in alabama. three more ruptures in 2007 led takata to identify a bad stamp press at a manufacturing facility in moses lake, washington. in 2008, honda recalled 3,940 cars in the u.s. however, two more air bags ruptured in may and june of 2009. one of which killed the driver.

at that point, it appears that takata believed the air bag inflaters were being improperly exposed to moisture during the production process. however, around the same time, takata confirmed that a stamp press was to blame for the at-risk air bags. in early 2011, uncertainty about the cause of the continuing ruptures led to another recall. and previous recalls were expanded in late 2012 upon the discovery that takata's production records were in disarray. nhtsa, takata, and car manufacturers all indicate that the vehicles with faulty air bags tied to manufacturing or storage issues have been recalled. and yet, several more ruptures subsequently occurred in southern states. this led manufacturers and nhtsa to believe that the prolonged exposure to high, absolute humidity levels was a major contributing factor.

however, nhtsa recently demanded that manufacturers broaden the current recalls in southern states to the national level. nhtsa believes that the recent incidents in california and north carolina indicate the possibility of ruptures in areas with lower absolute humidity. i understand takata disagrees with nhtsa's assessment, and i look forward to learning more about that. while the oem sitter before us today have all stated publicly that they are willing to do a national recall now, there are several questions here to address. for example, are the current testing methods adequate? how much testing is enough to determine a cause and how quickly it's being carried out? what is the appropriate level of coordination between nhtsa, automakers, and their suppliers. what metric should be used to determine whether a recall is

necessary? there are also questions about the supply of replacement parts and whether those replacement parts are truly safer than the parts being recalled. our highway safety depends on the vigilance of manufacturers as well as nhtsa. sometimes the regulator is in the best position to defend the defect and sometimes it's the manufacturer. the time has come to bring the facts together and make sure the unsafe airbag inflaters are off the market. consumers can get their faulty parts replaced and that future recalls are handled better. the safety of american drivers depend on our collective success. so i thank the witnesses for being here marsha blackburn today, and help achieve these goals and put a stop to this deadly problem. and there's one minute left of mine.

marsha, would you like to claim that? >> yes, thank you, mr. chairman. >> yield. >> thank you, and i thank our witnesses, also, for being here, and as the chairman said, 2004 is the first time when you have this issue. it was when the first inflater exploded. and then we go through the process of looking at the propellant change and finding out when the change was made going to ammonium nitrate in 2001. now we do hope that this hearing is going to give us an opportunity to talk with you about the decision making process. who was involved in that. why they made the decisions that they did. we'll drill down on that. we are very disappointed in takata. refusing to work with nhtsa on the deadline for a national recall of the driver's side airbags. it expired last night. we will want to address that with you. we welcome our witnesses, janice "jan" schakowsky and i am

finishing right on time, mr. chairman. back to you. >> well done. now chair recognizes the ranking member, the gentle lady from illinois for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman for holding this important hearing today. before i turn to today's business, i'd like to thank ranking member waxman for his decade of leadership, and his service as chairman and ranking member of this committee. he will leave an indelible legacy of achievement when he retires at the end of this year, and i am so proud to have learned from, and worked with him on so many issues of great importance to the american people. mr. chairman i'd also like to recognize you for your eight terms in the house, representing the people of nebraska, and i've enjoyed working with you during your chairmanship of the subcommittee over the past two years. i wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors. i'm deeply saddened that we're here again today to discuss preventable deaths but i'm

determined to understand exactly what happened and to respond in a way that improves driver and passenger safety. in 2004, a driver in alabama was killed by shrapnel ejected from a takata airbag. four years later, the company issued the first recall to address airbag ruptures, a recall that expanded over the next five years. earlier this year, in a regional recall was initiated to find the root cause of similar ruptures, and last week, nhtsa asked takata to order a national recall, and yesterday the company rejected nhtsa's request. media reports suggest that takata, and honda, knew about the serious risks its airbags posed to drivers and passengers as early as ten years ago. if prompt action had been taken to investigate the airbag ruptures and truly address the cause, we wouldn't be here today. because takata refused nhtsa's request for a recall, auto manufacturers, whose customers are driving vehicles equipped with airbags that could be deadly, now have to determine

whether they will recall the airbags on their own, while the mandatory recall process moves forward. i've received letters from constituents who are literally afraid to drive their cars. and this is unacceptable. i want to know why takata has been so slow, and ineffective, to respond -- in responding to this deadly defect. and why it believes a national recall is not warranted. i want to know what commitments takata and the auto companies represented here today plan to make in the immediate future to protect their customers. i want to know what more nhtsa needs to do in order to prevent problems like this from continuing to repeat themselves in the future. and i want to know, since the cause of the airbag ruptures is still not certain, whether replacement of these potentially dangerous airbags with very similar products actually eliminates the risk of airbag explosions in the future. so i look forward to our witness' answers to these questions and more. the incredibly slow response to this problem is just the latest

reminder that we need stronger laws to protect drivers, and passengers, and to hold manufacturers accountable for the cars they sell. earlier this year, i introduced hr-5654. the vehicle safety information act. legislation to improve auto safety, and the efficacy of -- and efficiency of recalls. that bill would expand and clarify the information manufacturers must provide nhtsa about defects, and fatal incidents. increase information about auto defects that nhtsa must share with the public. increase financial penalties, and remove the statutory maximum penalty for manufacturers that violate nhtsa reporting requirements. provide an imminent hazard authority so that nhtsa can expedite recalls of potentially deadly cars. limit the resale of cars with the serious defect unless the problem isn't fixed. or the buyer has been notified.

and end regional recalls. i urge the chairman to bring this bill up for consideration in the subcommittee, or to ask house leadership to put it on the suspension calendar without delay. and with that i yield back the balance of my time. >> chair now recognizes full committee chair, mr. upton. >> well, thank you mr. chairman. and i appreciate your leadership the last number of years, and we also will miss mr. waxman, and i think we'll have at some point a formal recognition of both of your service. so i'm from the auto state. i'm sorry to say that it has been a bad year for auto safety. the latest danger for drivers, malfunctioning airbags that, in fact, can shoot shrapnel through the air and make a bad accident even worse.

drivers are being told that their vehicle is subject to a recall, but there are not enough parts to fix it, and if they do get a replacement, that airbag may be subject to the same safety failure in the future, because we still don't know if the root problem has been addressed. there are still lots of questions surrounding these airbag defects and recalls, and today, we all want some answers. american people deserve to have confidence that the cars that they drive are safe and that the industry and the government are doing everything that they can do to improve safety. the first question that has to be determined is whether or not it's a design flaw for the airbag, or is it a manufacturing issue? until that question is answered, you're not going to be able to resolve the issue. unfortunately, deadly auto defects, and massive recalls, are not new subjects for this committee. i've listened to and led multiple recall hearings ranging from the ford firestone crisis to the toyota floor mat problem. obviously to the gm ignition switch debacle earlier this year.

over a decade ago, i authored the bipartisan tread act so that we could help catch and then fix defects sooner and avoid the kind of disaster that we're facing today. yet here we are again. tread act was very simple. requiring manufacturers to report the information needed to help nhtsa quickly identify vehicle defects and remove flawed cars from the road right away. our goal was to prevent injuries and save lives but we need industry and nhtsa to do their part. cars are safer today. but not because a company hires lawyers and consultants to avoid reporting safety incidents. i'm going to ask some tough questions regarding what we've read and heard about honda manipulating the system to report as little as possible. companies need to know that there isn't anything safe about shorting safety. we need more automakers to make safety a priority, and institute safety incentives. in the case of gm, they acknowledge their safety

failure, their ceo volunteered to testify, and they hired a new safety officer to implement companywide culture changes. i'd like to see that same level of urgency, that same admission of mistakes, and that same commitment to do better today. complex safety technology can lead to complex problems and the takata airbag issues are, indeed, complex. there were manufacturing issues and there were handling issues, and as soon as one problem was identified, it seemed like another sprang up, sort of like whack-a-mole. and now we're waiting to find out if humidity is the issue or if there are other manufacturing concerns. in the mean time, testing is slow. and we are short on replacement parts. what is worse, no one can say for sure that the replacement parts are any safer than the originals. we may be right back here after the replacement parts have reached their humidity half-life. the complexity is not an excuse for incompetence. we need to make sure that companies and regulators can

keep pace with innovation. we need a regulatory agency that breeds confidence and offers solutions, not one that is often too -- part of the problem. for witnesses i pose this question, what should i say to the mom in michigan who asks me if she and her family are safe behind the wheel. families across the country expect safety devices in their vehicles to work. they expect them to provide life-saving protection that they can count on in the event of an accident. and they expect that problems from earlier models be reported, and fixed and they expect to be able to get a defect repaired when they find out about it. but sadly i don't think i can give that assurance right now. one thing is for sure. we've got a lot of issues to resolve. i want to again thank chairman terry for calling thises hearing to start the process. i want to thank him from the bottom of my heart. for his service as a leader of this subcommittee and wish him well in the future and i yield back my time.

>> thank you, mr. chairman. that's much appreciated. now, it's time to introduce our panel. -- oh, i'm sorry. getting ahead of myself. gentleman from california is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you very much, mr. chairman. neither you nor i have left the committee yet. which we will do at the end of thises year, and i thank our colleague, for our kind words. here's what we know so far about the takata airbag recalls. we know that there's been a series of airbag recalls affecting millions of vehicles dating back to 2008, and we know that at least five people are dead and dozens have been injured by these defective airbags. there are questions about the takata airbags that remain unanswered. we do not know exactly what takata and auto manufacturers knew about this defective airbags, and when they knew it. we do not know, and it appears

that the national highway traffic safety administration, takata, and the auto manufacturers, do not know, either, the root cause of all these exploding airbags. so we have questions about whether the replacement airbag inflaters are safe. new documents provided to the committee reveal new questions. the national highway traffic safety administration, known as nhtsa, recently requested a national recall of all defective airbags on the driver's side of the car but has limited its action to regional recalls of passenger side airbags. but data we received is raising new questions about the safety of passenger side airbags and the scope of recalls. takata has tested over 2500 driver and passenger side airbags for ruptures.

none of the driver's side airbags ruptured in these tests. but takata has observed over 60 passenger side airbag ruptures. given these testing results, we need to understand why nhtsa has requested a broader recall for driver's side airbags but has not made the same request for passenger side airbags. mr. chairman, i have some documents that i've referred to showing these test results, and i would ask unanimous consent to put them in the hearing record. >> without objection. so ordered. >> we need to find answers to these questions and i hope the committee will continue its investigation, even after the time you and i, mr. chairman, will be gone. but we know enough now to begin our legislative work.

mr. chairman, last april i joined representative schakowsky to introduce hr-3364 the motor vehicle safety act of 2014. there are many important provisions in this legislation that would address problems that the committee found in our investigations of takata's explodeing airbags and the gm ignition switch failure. in both cases, auto manufacturers and auto parts manufacturers, failed to provide key information to the federal agency, nhtsa, in a timely fashion. and we learned last week of another major auto safety failure, for over a decade honda failed to report to the nhtsa more than 1700 claims of injuries or deaths caused by accidents in its vehicles. our legislation improves the early warning reporting system by making more information public and ensuring that nhtsa receives significantly more information from manufacturers on any fatal incident involving a safety defect. additional data and greater transparency will help nhtsa

identify deadly safety defects sooner. in both the gm and takata cases, nhtsa has been criticized for failing to recognize and act quickly enough as evidence mounted of deadly auto defects. our bill provides more resources to give them the additional enforcement authority, and increases the fines for manufacturers that violate safety vehicle safety laws. mr. chairman, today we'll learn of other needed fixtures to the current peter welch system. i think our legislation is a good place to start. while i have a very short time left i'd like to yield it to the gentleman from vermont the balance of my time. >> thank you very much. the two concerns i have that i hope are addressed in this is one, public safety. obviously automobiles are extremely important, but can be dangerous, with the defect. and number two, public confidence. when a serious incident happens