mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. madam president, yesterday's hearing of the commerce committee subcommittee on consumer safety provided a powerful and important moment in our legislative process. and i want to thank my colleague, the chairman of the subcommittee, senator mccaskill, for enabling us to come together, as well as my other colleagues on both sides of the aisle, senators klobuchar and boxer and senator ayotte, for their very insightful and significant questions and comments on a challenge that should unite on both sides of the aisle. tragic events, death and life-changing injuries to unsuspecting drivers who were victims of a defective ignition switch in automobiles manufactured by g.m. a car defect that should have been fixed disclosed and remedied before these deaths occurred. i want to thank the families of the victims of these directive cars

mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. in january of this year i came to the floor to talk about and honor one of my constituents, javier martinez, who was killed on december 28 of last year, just as 2013 was ending, he was shot while walking to a friend's house in new haven. he was 18 years old. in the aftermath of that tragedy, i've spoken with javier's family and his friends about his life and legacy. as i said on the senate floor a few months ago, javier was a kind and intelligent young man, well on his way to becoming a leader in his community. he cared a lot about the environment, he worked on the nature conservancy and new haven urban resources initiative to plant trees and protect endangered species. his classmates at the common ground school in new haven would like to plant a tree at the site of his death, and dedicate a garden in his honor because of his interest in the outdoors and the natural resources that enhance the beauty of our world, which he loved so much. yesterday morning i visited some of javier's cla

mr. blumenthal, senator blumenthal showed you the recall notice and you still won't say that everybody who has these cars should get rid of it. even though the recall notice says if your keychain is heavy or you go over rough roads. have you seen this winter? in vermont they had 94 occasions of snow. do you know what that does for the infrastructure? look, you should have said, you're right. the mr. markey, senator markey, a great leader on this, says will you support just making transparent the report to the company that there's a problem with the car? put it out there. oh, no, you can't come you can't answer that either. so then my question in march 2005 gm people said it costs too much to fix these cars. the codeword quote none of the solutions represent an acceptable business case. that was a public document. gm gave that document over. all, you can even talk to that big you don't know anything about anything. and, madam chairman was not to comment on ask unanimous consent to place in the record more pictures of mary theresa car, and what kind of a death follows that kind of crash. you

mr. blumenthal: madam president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president. i think that many of my colleagues feel very add home with this image, which is a reminder of a household name, ramona and her father, a great story written by beverly cleary, a prize-winning story, part of a series, written this particular story in 1968. in 1968 and in this story, ramona's dad is struggling with dorothy -- his name is robert -- to get by and keep the family together on a minimum-wage job, which in 1968 paid $1.60 an ho hour. today the minimum wage, if it had kept pace with inflation, would be $10.71 an hour. we know, many of us -- and probably many of my colleagues who have read this story -- that robert and dorothy quinnby are engaged in a quiet struggle to make even ends meet, even as ramona is engaged in all kind of antics and play. he is working as a grocery bagger at a store, ramona's mother is working, two -- and early example of a two-family household, two-income family -- and they're able to keep their family afloat on t

mr. blumenthal: thank you, madam president.madam president, yesterday's hearing of the commerce committee subcommittee on committee subcommittee on >> yesterday's hearing of the commerce committee on consumer safety provided a powerful and important moment in our legislative process. , want to think my colleagueleag the chairman to enable us to come together as well as my other colleague global sides of the i/o -- ideal for there very insightful and significant questions and comments vents, death on a challenge that should unsuspecting drivers who were victims of a defective ignition switch in automobiles manufactured by g.m. a car defect that should have been fixed disclosed

mr. senator blumenthal show you the recall notice that you still won't say that everybody that has these cars should get rid of it even though the recall notice says if your keychain is heavy or you go over rough roads. do you know what that does to the infrastructure? then senator markey says will uswillyou support making use it for making transparent to support a company that had a problem with the car, put it out there. you can't answer that either. than how much it costs to fix the cars. none of the solutions represent an acceptable business case. that was a public document. they gave the document over. the chairman that isn't here placed more pictures of the car and what kind of a death follows that kind of crash. it's my understanding you are recalling many of the cars now, not all of them but if people want to they can safely is pay for loaders is that correct? that is the right thing to do. but do you support a law that would say cars like yours can no longer be rented or loaned? to you support a law like that? >> if there's a safety issue on the vehicle -- >> do you support a pr

blumenthal. >> go ahead. >> thank you. thank you both for being here, mr. friedman, general scoble. i first of all want to thank you for your service to our nation and now for your service at nhtsa as inspector general. and thank you, mr. friedman, for your service at nhtsa. let me ask you, mr. friedman, i take it from what you suggested and what you say, what you said here today that gm concealed material significant information from nhtsa, is that correct is because we are very concerned that they didn't provide us with sufficient information. spent i know you're concerned. we're all concerned. did they conceal information so far as you know? >> that is exactly the subject of an open investigation that we have into general motors but and if we find that they did violate their responsibility to report information to act quickly and we will hold them accountable. but because that's an open investigation i don't want to prejudge that. but i'm very concerned that they did not provide us with part never changes. i'm concerned that they had conversations with suppliers about the algorit

. >> senator blumenthal had one follow-up question and then senator franken and i will be my questions to the end. >> i think you and i appreciate that. a quick question for mr. kimmelman kimmelman. mr. cohen and i agreed that the cost of the sports programming are rising and in fact they are rising astronomically and should better reflect consumer demand. by question to you is our consumers the best judge of what a fair price for programming should be an wooden prices come down if they had more choice specifically the way to break the cycle of ever-increasing cost for sports programming instead of giving consumers some more choice through À la carte programming and i wonder if you could comment on the potential effects of disciplining the market and bringing down the cost of cable as a result of À la carte. >> i truly believe you are correct. one of the concerns that wasn't addressed earlier was that we have numerous studies that show with vertical integration wind up with higher prices on the regional sports channels that are integrated than the ones that are independent and one of the related concerns are that competitors who wants porch programming in th

mr. valukas of doing this report. we are working on all the information that nhtsa has requested to provide that in a timely fashion. >> thank you. >> see who's next. senator booker is not here. senator blumenthal >> thank you, madam chairman, and thank you, senator mccaskill for holding this hearing. thank you, ms. barra, for being here today to you and i've met before, happily? and going to kill you know what i said then which is i have enormous admiration and respect for your career, what you've accomplished and the leadership that you provided to gm. and i also have enormous respect for your company. it's an iconic, enormously important manufacturing company, and it produces terrific products, generally. and i know that you are a company here by a regiment of lawyers and a battalion of public relations consultants, and that you are breaking with the culture. it's a very difficult step, but let me come with all due respect, such as three steps, at least three steps that you can take if you really want to break with the culture and show the leadership that i think is worthy of gm and worthy of your leadership. number one, commit to a compensation fund that will do justice for the victims of t

mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i begin by remarking on -- the presiding officer: i'm sorry, the senator from connecticut. we are in a quorum call right now. mr. blumenthal: if i may ask, mr. president, that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i want to begin by remarking on the extraordinary and remarkable triumph of the uconn men's basketball team last night, a victory that really is beyond my words to describe in the achievement it represents for those players, for the school, for the coach, kevin ollie, and for the entire university, really, in the face of last year's disqualification, unfair and unjust fight, in my view. i am so proud of our team and the university of connecticut for its steadfast and relentless pursuit of this national championship which last night culminated in a huge and joyous triumph, felt throughout connecticut and in fact throughout the country. and i will be commenting in greater length and depth on what this ach

mr. blumenthal: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. mr. president, in just a few hours, at 7:00 this evening -- the presiding officer: we're in a quorum call. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, i ask that the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. blumenthal: mr. president, in just a couple of hours in milford, connecticut, at 7:00 p.m. this evening, there will be a vigil bringing together many different members of the milford community to celebrate and mourn and grieve the life of a beautiful young woman who suffered senselessly and brutally her death last friday morning. in this inexpoliticsable act of violence, she was killed by a fellow classmate shortly after 7:00 in the morning, the jonathan law high school was turned into a crime scene. as members of the first responder team, first the police and then medics sought to save her life. tragically and unfortunately, they were unable to do so. and the evening that was to be their prom, their junior prom, instead became a

mr. blumenthal: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from connecticut is recognized. mr. blumenthal: thank you, mr. president. i'm honored to follow the presiding officer and my good friend, senator schumer of new york, and my colleague and friend, senator murphy of connecticut, to talk about an issue that really affects our quality of life, our pocketbooks, and our environment. but first i want to join my colleague from new york in paying tribute to one of the great transportation advocates indeed one of the great public servants of our time, senator frank schumer, who preceded me as chairman of a critical subcommittee on the commerce committee, which has authority and jurisdiction over surface transportation. i am tremendously honored to have followed him in that role, and my mission and ambition is to be as effective and eloquent and ardent as he was in this cause. it is a cause that brings us together as a nation. as my colleague from new york as so eloquently said, we are better when we come together as a nation and the railroads provide arteries carrying the lifebloo