mr. rosekind: absolutely. miss mccass -- mr. senator mccaskill: i would like to put into the record a written statement for the record if i might -- i now want to go to this audit. my colleagues are patient with me because i'm an audit weirdo. used to be an auditor so i read this stuff. mr. scovel knows i'm somebody who consumes these things. this audit report is one of the worst i have ever seen. in terms of a government agency. and the reason it's so bad, i agree, mr. scovel, this isn't about resources. this is about blatant incompetent mismanagement, mr. rosekind. let's just go through one of many shortcomings. this is one that jumped out to me. when to open an investigation. now, if nhtsa isn't clear about when an investigation is to be opened, 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's the scary part. based on the interviews, the i

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 appropriatel

mr. rosekind in mr. sub fight for your time, your testimony and responses to your questions and we invite the second panel to come up. [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] [inaudible conversations] >> we want to welcome our second panel of witnesses this morning. thank you for being here for your testimony. i'm going to hand it off for opening statements. we have with us the executive vice president of north america for takata mr. scott kunselman the senior vice president of vehicle safety and regulatory compliance with chrysler formerly known as chrysler group and mr. rick schostek has the executive vice president or honda north america so i'm going to ask if we could my right if you will proceed with your testimony and then we will go from there and if you can confine it to is close to five minutes as possible and take it from there. mr. kennedy. [inaudible] >> i'm sorry. is it on now?

mr. rosekind. mr. calvin scovel. >> chairman thune, ranking member nelson members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to discuss nhtsa's vehicle oversight. strong oversight is critical for taking timely action against vehicle defects such as gm's faulty ignition switch. this defect has been linked to more than 110 fatalities and 210 injuries. airbag non-deployment cause us to look at certain gm vehicles since as early as 2007 but an investigation was not warranted and we know the faulty ignition switch can disable to vehicle's power steering brakes and airbags. today i will discuss the weaknesses we identified relating to the procedure for collecting and analyzing vehicle safety data and determining which issues warrant further investigation. i will also show how the weaknesses we identify affected the handling of the ignition switch devapidity -- defect. we identified three areas of weakness to identify safety vehicle concerns. first, odi lacks the procedures needed to collect complete and acc

mr. rosekind it looks like you and i are going to have a one-on-one conversation. mr. scovel it is not that i don't appreciate your work and i do appreciate both witnesses being here and i don't think i will complete the questioning. it is my understanding that we'll have more members back after they get back from the floor so hopefully if not we'll go to recess until they do. but i want to talk about this gap in consumer protection that others are talking about and last saturday i dropped my daughter's car off at the dealership. i do most of the work myself. my father owned an automotive business and it was an independent auto business. and the question becomes if you are the third owner, fourth owner of a particular vehicle. when i went into the deepership, do they have an obligation to tell me if or not there is a recall on that particular make and model. >> they do not. that is part of the grow america authority request is to get that kind of -- if you go to a new car dealer they should do that for you automatically. >> but are they obligated to do that. >> no. >>

mr. rosekind. mr. chairman, i hope that this will be a hearing of great substance for the american people. >> chair thanks the gentleman. chair recognized the ranking member for five minutes for opening statement. >> thank you mr. chairman. though it has taken months, i'm glad that takata finally admitted that its air bags are defective and moved forward with national recalls. getting dangerous cars off the road is crucial. air bags are supposed to save lives and not take lives. these national recalls came after a full year in which we've seen a sloppy rollout of recalls of these air bags. each auto maker handled it differently. some has regional safety campaigns and high humidity areas. others had regional recalls. others expanded their recalls to more states and some had national recalls of certain cars. one auto maker advised against passengers using front seats until the air bags are fixed, even offering to disable passenger air bags as a precaution. all of this has led to considerable confusion fo

mr. rosekind, we need to strengthen that agency, not strangle it. we need to provide more funds not cut. but a cop that is only as good as the legal tools that she has a cop is only as good as the laws that are enforced. and so i have proposed along with my colleagues a collection of new laws that will strengthen your legal tools. we can use all the rhetoric we want, but the rhetoric is no good without real action and isntitutional change and new laws that give you the tools you need. for example elminating the caps on penalty, not just waiting for them, but eliminating the penalty for nondisclosure. the early warning reporting act so you can take action, the automaker accountability act that i propose as well as criminal penalties not just on the company billed the corporate executives when they cover up or conceal the defects. and as my colleague already said rental car companies need to be held accountable to the used car dealer at least one of these occur as a result of a used car and they can't find the owner of the car because he or she bought

. >> thank you administrate rosekind. mr.n thune ranking member nelson members of the committee. thank you for inviting me to discuss's 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. airbag 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 airbags. 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 effected odi's handling of the ignition switch defect. we identified three areas of weakness in nhtsa's vehicle safety procedures that undermine i

rosekind talk about some of them. you heard mr. kelly talk about some of them. it takes a long time, as dr. rosekind said, 7 to 12 years. it takes high absolute humidity, it takes high heat. what's difficult about the situation is, you can put two inflators in that situation, one of them is fine and one of them is not. so that is really what the struggle has been with getting to the root cause. but ammonium nitrate appears to be one of the factors that contributes. >> it's high humidity is an issue. my understanding is some of these are manufactured with a desiccant. to absorb humidity. >> yes. >> and then it would go with the time frame that presumably that will get completely used up over some period of time. is that correct? >> i don't know that it would get completely used up, sir. it depends on the amount of moisture that is in a particular inflater and the amount of desiccant. we have not seen this issue with those inflaters in the field. so we know that's a factor that contributes to the life of the inflator. >> does takata involved in the make or model of

mr. rosekind. you can up with 33.8 million vehicles to be recalled on the takata matter. how did you come up with that number? >> our estimate there's 34 billion in flitters that our defective. they are in 32 million vehicles. that is the acknowledgement some have both driver and passenger airbags that need their place and some need to come back again that is why 34 million in freighters in 32 million vehicles. >> the vehicle identification number has been provided as of this morning. >> you heard what the inspector general said of the defect investigations. what do you thank you need to do to ensure that odi does not miss the next gm ignition defect or the next takata airbag crisis? garett we have concurred with all recommendations why we will submit that action setter going on that debt to all processes that we are discussing but it is the ongoing a violation so i will give you 44 different areas from cry rather give you the west but the ongoing evaluation that on a continual basis to improve the process faster and better. >> i will suggest one area. as the inspector ge

mr. rosekind, and mr. chairman i hope this is a hearing of dprat substance for the american people. >> chair thank you. chair recognizes mr. pallone for five minutes. >> thank you. though it has taken months i am glad tekata admitted their airbags are defective and moved forward with the recalls. getting the dangerous cars off the road is crucial. airbags are supposed to save lives and not take lives. but the nag national recalls came a year after the exploding airbags. each automaker handles it differently. some have high absolute humidity areas and at the same time others conducted recalls in the same area and some expanded their recall to other states and some conducted national recalls of certain cars. one auto went against using front seats until the airbags are fixed and offering to disable them until fixed. drivers are unsure if their cars are part of the recall those who had their airbags replaced don't know if they need them replaced again, and most importantly people don't know if their cars are

mr. rosekind. mr. calvin scovel. >> chairman thune, ranking member nelson, members of the committee, thank you for inviting me to discuss nhtsa's vehicle oversight. strong oversight is critical for taking timely action against vehicle defects such as gm's faulty ignition switch. this defect has been linked to more than 110 fatalities and 210 injuries. airbag non-deployment cause us to look at certain gm vehicles since as early as 2007 but an investigation was not warranted and we know the faulty ignition switch can disable to vehicle's power steering, brakes and airbags. today i will discuss the weaknesses we identified relating to the procedure for collecting and analyzing vehicle safety data and determining which issues warrant further investigation. i will also show how the weaknesses we identify affected the handling of the ignition switch devapidity -- defect. we identified three areas of weakness to identify safety vehicle concerns. first, odi lacks the procedures needed to collect complete and a

mr. chairman. dr. rosekind, i went online regarding my own situation and the website is safercar.gov. >> spell that out for the public. >> safercar.gov. >> and a half on how many millions of vin numbers? >> the total number i can tell you specifically right now. we were up 30.4 million vehicles. >> i know you are working as quickly as you can, but at the moment not only of the vin members are on that site. i was just lucky that mine had her to come out. you're informing the american people to this committee hearing being televised across the country at the american people should go on the website frequently. >> weekly. >> can you estimate as to when you might have all of the numbers up on the site? i know that's a difficult question and just asking is there a timeframe that you think you might be able to have? >> we have seven out of 11 in the manufacturers are working quickly. i would hope in the next two weeks edition of the complete data set. >> in the next two weeks. >> that is the plan. >> though i didn't

rosekind, and mr. chairman, i hope that this will be a hearing of great substance for the american people. >> the gentleman yield back. that you recognize the ranking member of the full committee, mr. pallone, five minutes for an opening statement please. >> thank you, mr. chairman. though it is taken once i'm glad takata finally admitted its airbags are defective and finally before with national recalls. getting dangerous cars off the road is crucial. airbags are supposed to stabilize and not take lives. -- save lives and not take lives. .. and yet and not time we are still left with many of the same questions. we still do not know the root cause of the takata airbag defects. we know enough to take action on while i appreciated and share the majority the concerns about this crisis, i am disappointed by his lack of action. it is not a part of the issue. even after the [cheers and applause] nation issue and going back to the toyota sudden acceleration problems come in the committee is set to take approp

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 my daughter's car off at dealership. i usually do most of the work myself. my father owned an automotive business. it was an independent auto repair service. so the question becomes if you're the second owner, third owner, fourth owner of a particular vehicle, when i went into that dealership, does that dealership have an obligation to tell me if -- if there's a recall on that particular make and model? >> they do not. that's part of our grow america authority request, is to get that kind of independent -- doing that -- if you go to a new car dealer they should do that for you automatically. >> but are they obligated to do that? >> no

mr. kennedy? >> i think dr. rosekind answered. to spend on asking for your answer. >> i believe it holds up to the 1.2 million. 1.2 million. >> have you paid the? >> to my knowledge not no. >> why not? >> that's part of the discussion and negotiation with nhtsa. they've agreed to suspend as part of the consent order but they have reserved the right to incur for the penalties as they see fit. >> now, based on your testimony to the chairman and ranking member, is it possible that replacement airbags will continue to have ammonium nitrate indian speakers yes, sir, that will. some of them will. >> and you are confident that they will be safe for some period of time or in extended period of time? >> we feel that they are safe. that's why again as part of the consent order we are continuing to test outside the of the scope of the recalls and we're continuing to test to make sure the remedy parts arsenic. >> should those who are having an airbag replace asked whether their new airbag will contain ammonium nitrate and perhaps ask for a di