mr. barton, for three minutes. mr. barton: i ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. barton: we are here to honor a texas legend in his own time, he honorable kent hance. kent was born in west texas and has already been pointed out, he got elected to the texas senate at a very young age and got elected to the house of representatives in 1978 along ith such stalwarts as phil gramm and ralph hall came a little bit later, marvin lee from waco came later. weevilme known as a boll . president reagan asked a number of them to carry the reagan tax cut, which really began the renaissance of america, and that young man was congressman kent hance of the 19th congressional district. he was on the ways and means ommittee as a democrat and prevailed -- i would assume the chairman was dan. in 1984, he decided to go back to texas and gave up his seat in.larry combest came bow rmiey, joe barton, boletter and max sweeney. he switched parties and became a republican and got appointed to the railroad commission. he was the first republican

mr. barton, let me begin as a matter of fact by discussing alpa. alpa today released a press statement.y called for several improvements. two things they did not call for. they did not call for increasing the two-hour recording capabilities. nor did alpa call for cockpit placing of cameras in cockpits. can you speak to those two issues? why not increase the length of time that would be recorded from the two hours? >> well, mike, obviously you know i've been working legislative issues with the coalition families and ellen sarasini on the hill. but those two issues there, wouldn't a video camera in the cockpit or increased video or voice recorder time would not have any more answers to this situation that happened with malaysia air. so i don't know why we want to increase the recording devices that are coming from the airplane already when we can't find the airplane. >> but if there were real time transmission of data, presumably there'd be no mystery right now. we might not know where the plane exists, but we'd certainly know what brought about the circumstance. >> yeah. i agree with tha

mr. barton for five minutes. >> i want to apologize to the other members were still here. i have been watching the hearing. i apologize for not being here physically to go ahead of some of you folks. having said that, i will go ahead. i have listened to most of what you said today on the television. i think it is obvious that gm has some real questions they have not done a good job of answering today. i also think as the federal regulator on the block there are some valid questions for your agency. my first question is at what level of accidents or deaths or incidents of malfunction triggers more than normal nhtsa review. not necessarily a full-fledged investigation. in hindsight, we have 13 deaths that are attributable to this problem over a 10 year period. i don't know how many accidents or injuries. when would nhtsa look at something and say, there is an anomaly. we need check it out to read books i appreciate your question. part of what -- there are important questions that nhtsa has to answer in addition to general motors. you have questions, we have questions. my foc

mr. barton from texas. >> i want to make this the general observation. this is probably the last major investigation that this subcommittee and full committee is going to conduct where we have the services of mr. dingell and mr. waxman. we've had a history on this committee in this subcommittee going back 40 or 50 years, when we have major issues we try to approach them on behalf of the american people in a nonpartisan very open way. and it certainly appears we're going to continue that tradition today. so i hope that we can show the best to the american people that the congress at its best gets the factses and presents the fact and in the future we protect the public health and safety for the american people. with that caveat, i have a few questions. a number of congressmen have made the point that the ignition switches didn't appear to meet specifications. and my assumption is that you've agreed that they did not meet specifications, is that correct? >> we've learned that as we did the recall. >> now, i'm an industrial engineer and i used to be a regist

mr. barton of texas, for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. before i ask my questions i want to make a general observation. this is probably the last major investigation that this subcommittee and full committee is going to conduct where we have the services of mr. dingell and mr. waxman. we've had a history on this committee and this subcommittee going back at least 40 to 50 years that the when we have major issues, we try to approach them on behalf of the american people in a nonpartisan, very open way, and it certainly appears we're going to continue that tradition today, so i hope that we can show the best to the american people that the congress at its best, gets the facts, presents the facts, and does so in a way that in the future we protect the public health and safety for the american people. now, with that caveat, i do have a few questions. a number of congressmen so far have made the point that these ignition switches didn't appear to meet specifications, and my assumption is that you have agreed that they did not meet specification

mr. barton, who did this with the -- with president reagan's budget back in the 1980's. i'd like to see it become a regular feature in the house and i look forward to the debate as we go forward today. with that i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman from south carolina reserves his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland rise? mr. van hollen: mr. chairman, i rise to claim time in approximate opposition to the gentleman's amendment. -- in opposition to the gentleman's amendment. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. mr. van hollen: thank you, mr. chairman. you know some things never change. as the gentleman from south carolina said, he offered this political stunt two years ago and it's no less of a political stunt today than it was two years ago. mr. chairman, i'm a strong supporter of the president's budget and of the president's policies. this is not a vote on the president's budget and his policies. you know what, i wish it were. i wish the speaker of this house would bring up the president's proposal to shut dow

mr. barton from texas. >> i want to make this the general observation. this is probably the last major investigation that this subcommittee and full committee is going to conduct where we have the services of mr. dingell and mr. waxman. we've had a history on this committee in this subcommittee going back 40 or 50 years, when we have major issues we try to approach them on behalf of the american people in a nonpartisan very open way. and it certainly appears we're going to continue that tradition today. so i hope that we can show the best to the american people that the congress at its best gets the factses and presents the fact and in the future we protect the public health and safety for the american people. with that caveat, i have a few questions. a number of congressmen have made the point that the ignition switches didn't appear to meet specifications. and my assumption is that you've agreed that they did not meet specifications, is that correct? >> we've learned that as we did the recall. >> now, i'm an industrial engineer and i used to be a regist

mr. barton, thank you for being with us this morning.s the handling of a workplace shooting at a military installation differ from a civilian workplace? >> every day in the united states on average, every workday, about two people are killed at work either by a coworker or a former coworker, so that is a pretty numbing statistic, but it's actually been flat for about 16 years. in terms of the military, naturally the access to weapons is so much more profoundly an issue and more importantly, the issues of emotion, in this case, obviously someone who had severe emotional distress. in the workplace, it's e.a.p., we have a human resources department. in the military, it's much more difficult to say to a commanding officer i'm struggling. it's a stigma and society is still struggling with that. >> what you're alluding to is the culture of the military. i interviewed the mayor of killeen, texas yesterday who said the same thing. these are soldiers in many cases trained to use a weapon and to kill and they have been in many cases in war zones,