members of the senate commerce subcommittee on consumer protection questioned mary barra and michael milikin. >>> all right. this hearing will come to order. we revisit today the tragic management failures at gm that killed people. first, i want to acknowledge in my opening remarks then from my viewpoint the ceo of general motors, mary barra, has stepped up and con fronted head-on the problem and corporate culture that caused it. some see the record-number of recalls at general motors as a problem, i see it as a good sign. second, i want to briefly say that i think i speak on behalf of all members of congress who have asked very difficult questions surrounding these tragic events that while we are asking tough questions, we have great respect for the workers of general motors. i would like to take this moment to thank the workers at general motors. you are terrific. you build good cars. and you also were the victims of outrageously incompetent management. management was the problem here not the workers. the report i spent time with i find it thorough and damming. there was indifference, dece

even more interested today in undering how in the aftermath of this report how in the world did michael milikin keep his job? i don't understand how the general council for a litigation department that had this massive failure of responsibility how he would be allowed to continue in that important leadership roll in this company. and the questions i asked today will be surrounding what he knew and why he didn't know it and what kind of direction did he give the legal department that would allow them to do nothing in the face of the evidence they were confronting over years of litigation by people who were trying to get the attention of general motors about the fatal defect in the product they were selling. senator heller. >> chairman mccaskill, thank you. and i would like to thank the witnesses here today for both hearings and also thank chairman mccaskill for this second hearing on general motors. today based on the findings of the report, we can confirm this is in fact the darkest history of general motors. an ignition switch was approved but it failed gm's requirements for torque requirement