dr. rosekind for testifying today. it is my opinion that the takata spi inflator rupture may have been it's my understanding anyway that it may have been caused by high humidity. what is the minimum exposure period before an inflator is considered by takata to be at risk in a high humidity area, and if you have an opinion as to whether it was caused by hue humidity, i'd like to hear it as well. >> i'm going to put my ntsb hat on and say i'd be cautious saying probable cause at this point because there is no root cause but to your question there's no there's absolutely data that shows humidity because of the moisture can have an effect on the inflator and we could get into the chemistry but your main question is what we've seen in the data, somewhere between 7.5 to about 12.3 years is where we're seeing that inflator can rupture. >> thank you. all right, next question is i understand nhtsa is helping prioritize the most urgently needed replacements to various parts of the country that need it most. in theory this approa

dr. rosekind how many letters have gone out so far? >> i would have to look into and get back to you. >> "the wall street journal" says there may be a place for fact yours that could lead to all of this benefactors include damaged or problematic template or components positioning of the inflator in airbag system and vehicles, prolonged exposure to heat coming humidity and manufacturing variability. are you not analyzing the new study from the german as to whether what they suggest may be true? >> we are both aware of that report and looking at that. plus multiple folks doing testing. you would hear from a coalition. automakers are doing their own. consent order gives access to all of the data. you just highlighted why this is so difficult. over 10 different configurations of the later across the different makes and models as part of the problem trying to figure with the root causes. >> part of this is using bat wing shaped wafers and side airbags. would you explain to the american people what that means? >> that has to do with the shap

dr. rosekind? mr. rosekind: it is important to get those people informed. grow america talks about that. there is no sense of the technology to do that, the cost, the procedures, etc. and making sure that the consumers basically don't have any negative affects from a defect created by a manufacture. so absolutely this could be a touch point. and grow america, we're suggesting pilot programs to work that technology, the cost procedures out to figure how it can go national. marcus behling thank you. -- senator markey: thank you. >> i'm doing the heavy lifting with the gavel. senator peters. senator peters: i appreciate both the panelists and your testimony. mr. rosekind, i hear you when you say that this helps and if the agency will be able to deliver effective oversight for vehicle safety we in congress here need to consider increasing your funding as well as having stable funding so you can modernize your crash data collection systems hiring additional experts and hire investigation. before that happens i am sure you know very well you must prove that your

dr. rosekind. the senator and i have the early warning safety improvement act that required automakers to automatically provide defective cars to nhtsa and 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 airbags. 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 exploding airbag defects. can you look at the families that lost their patients children, spouses or siblings and you can tell them that you did everything that you could to make sure thur lives weren't lost in vain. dr. rosekind will you call for a nht

dr. rosekind for testifying today. is lighter standing the takata inflator may have been caused by high as humidity. what is the minimum exposure period before it is considered to be a bad whiskey and a higher humidity area? and apple by to hear that as well. >> i would be very cautious at this point there is no root cause but there is data that shows humidity because of the moisture can have an effect to get into the chemistry but what we have seen with 12.three years that it could rupture. >> i understand they have urgency in what is needed roast. to have that finite supply for those that are projected more quickly but this approach does not appear to match with the nhtsa rollout on may 19 that cover 34 million vehicles but it is the nuclear if they could have replacement parts and at which point can day obtain replacement parts in the future? are they available now in florida but not in new jersey or other parts of the country? are there enough replacement parts available? >> safercar.gov will let them know if they

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 t

dr. 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

dr. rosekind say, it takes 7 1/2 to 12 years. putting in a brand-new part is a huge improvement in safety. as we continue to test, if it shows that we need to take additional actions, we will take additional actions. >> does the recall affect cars that are over ten years old? >> yes. some of them i think -- well, the original recalls did. these new ones announced i'd have to look and see because of that overlap. but some of them go back to as early as i think 2000 2001. were the first ones involved. >> my understanding is that you are doing that with older cars but you're not required to do so. so i wanted to ask you if takata has taken a position on the vehicle safety improvement act, hr-1181. >> no, we have not publicly. i'm aware of the bill. i'm not aware of all of the particulars in the bill. but we certainly support any effort that would help improve the return rate on recalls. >> so let me give you some of the items in the bill and see if you would support that. hr-1181 would increase the quantity and quality of informatio

dr. rosekind's opening remarks at this point question assumptions. one of the assumptions that desperately must be questioned is how can we speed up the decision loop so that we can get to the decision to investigate sooner and hopefully upon investigation get to a decision on correct action. >> i appreciate in ensuring there are more -- it just seems as though we are staying at the gap there and i appreciate your efforts as well to change the culture to look at ways we can move faster and the senator and the chairmen have just returned here. mr. chairman i'm going to turn it back to you but thank you for your thoughtful comments. >> thank you to the senator of montana are residing here while they get to that vote and i think that wraps up the first panel sub thank you 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 conversati

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

dr. rosekind's opening remarks at this point question assumptions. one of the assumptions that desperately must be questioned is how can we speed up the decision loop so that we can get to the decision to investigate sooner and hopefully upon get to a decision on corrective action sooner. >> and i appreciate on the balance of ensuring we're thorough and probably identified the problem and how to mitigate the risk. it just seems as though we're seeing a pretty good gap there. i appreciate your efforts as well to change the culture, to look at ways we can move faster and the senator and chairman have just returned here. as chairman i'm going to turn it back to you. thank you for your thoughtful comments. >> thank you to the senator from montana for presiding here while we get through the vote. i think that wraps up the first panel. thank you, am rosekind and mrchlt scovel for your time your testimony and responses to our question. i want to invite the second panel to come up and we'll get going with that. >>> we'll welcome our second panel of witnesses

dr. rosekind he took over just weeks after the last subcommittee's hearing in december. during yesterday's hearing, one they have themes we heard repeatedly was that nhtsa would have been able to identify and mandate recalls if they had more resources. it's a refrain we're used to hearing here in congress. his argument was with more money they could have saved more lives. i'll take him at his word on that. for fiscal year 2016, congress is proposing funding the national highway traffic safety administration account poe responsible for the policing of auto manufacturers' products for $15 million. it's an increase and for that i'm grateful. it is in the interest of good faith however that with the new chairman, from the new chairman of the subcommittee to the new administrator of nhtsa i want to take an additional step and offer $4 million more dollars to provide them with what they need to ensure more lives are not disrupted by these defects. i hope that nhtsa can use this additional funding to find a permanent solution to the problem. commerce, manufacture and trade subc

dr. rosekind has been a breath of fresh air and you have taken numerous actions to speed up the tekata recall process, but nhtsa still faces deep challenges. for one thing, as no doubt you will point out, it is underfunded. it lacks the necessary funding to make sure that automakers and the sticks as well as the carrot carrots it lacks to get the automakers to be forth coming about the recalls. we are not just picking on tekata. 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. for that nhtsa could only find gm a measlely $35,000 and that is less than gm makes in a quarter -- $35 million -- the chal challenged were detailed in the inspector general report released yesterday revealing problems in nhtsa's office of investigation especially related to the handling of the gm crisis last year. i can tell you this senator is going to fight for additional funding for nhtsa. there has to be accountability as well. and the ig report found severe deficiencies in nhtsa's ability to effectively c

dr. rosekind has been a breath of fresh air and you have 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 is underfunded. it lacks the necessary funding to make sure that automakers and the sticks as well as the carrot carrots it lacks to get the automakers to be forth coming about the recalls. we are 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. for that, nhtsa could only find gm a measlely $35,000 and that is less than gm makes in a quarter -- $35 million -- the chal challenged were detailed in the inspector general report released yesterday revealing problems in nhtsa's office of investigation especially related to the handling of the gm crisis last year. i can tell you this senator is going to fight for additional funding for nhtsa. there has to be accountability as well. and the ig report found severe deficiencies in nhtsa's ability to effectively