mr. cummings, i'm new here in washington. mr. strickland, thank you very much for being here. >> thank you. nice seeing you again. >> nice seeing you, too. we've had other conversations about other issues. but today i'd like to talk about -- and the ranking member brought it up -- trust, based on integrity or based on confidence. i'm concerned with your role and nhtsa's role. this is the battery, how one handles that and treats that, that really is kind of the essence of what we're talking about for safety. i think we should all take this opportunity. we learn from mistakes. we learn from shortcomings. we look at situations that we debate like the way they worked out, and we figure out what we did wrong and we move on. so i think that's what a hearing like this is about. i guess my question to you is were the automobile safety engineers aware of the dangers posed by the lithium ion battery? >> at what point, madam manager? >> after the crash occurred on the 12th, may 12th, when the car sat after the crash. >> i understand, thank

mr. cummings. >> i want to thank you all for your testimony and mr. jarvis thank you for using your discretion. as a child starting at nine years old, i a started to participate in protest to get some rights. i realize now what a delicate balance it can be when you have people together who are frustrated and you are very, very sensitive and you, was trying to protect the health and safety, and must be difficult at times to figure out the balance but obviously you have done a good job to deal with that. at the same time listening to the last questioner, our law enforcement people and parked people who have to carry out these very difficult tasks it is easy for us to sit appear to second-guess the people on the ground to like the chief and others but you have to current and do with this in a day-to-day basis and i appreciate your discretion i appreciate your understanding that something could get out of hand. i appreciate the idea is not about, everybody assumes the implications of a the moment ago that i would find very insulting is that you do your jo

mr. cummings was going to ask unanimous consent to have a letter he wrote due june the 23rd, 2011 to chairman isaiah on this matter in the record. >> reserving the right to reject, what is the nature of the letter? >> has just handed the letter. doing the chairman of favor. >> i certainly understand. i appreciate the ranking member and without objection, this'll be entered into the record. we'll recognize mr. ross from florida for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. cordray, i think you'll have your hands full with regard to legitimize not only your appointment, but the agency with which you really. not a chance review not only are up in testimony, but also listen to it. he makes several references about consumer poor will benefit on its businesses. oz businesses want to compete in a market where buyers understand the terms and in conclusion you say to make financial markets work better for consumers and honest businesses that serve them. what constitutes an honest business? >> to me, and honest businesses a business that abides by the law and competes in a fair way in american base

mr. cummings, thank you so much for the opportunity. our work was independent. we have protect the american public and our obligation is to ensure the american public gets home safely every time. it took us six months in order to figure out not only if the volt was involved, what caused the fire, and whether there was risk, and then if there was a defect to be addressed. it took six months of a lot of engineers in my agency and other agencies across government to do that. at no time was any part of government coming to me or the staff saying we should do nothing other than our job, and that's what we did. >> thank you very much. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you, we're not trying to make a point. the point is the point. the time line is the time line. the facts are the facts. the problem is the problem. that's why we have the hearing. >> the problem is the problem. >> yeah, we're here because a vehicle exploded in a timeline that this gentleman did not give information to the committee when he could have back in october. >> that's right, but would the gen

i mean, he seems to be, like elijah cummings was saying, why would you put your time, mr.sman, on things like foreclosure and not necessarily on what people are protesting? >> quickly, how do you quickly -- we only have a minute left -- quickly balance the rights of the businesses down in that area who are getting fed up with just -- >> well, the mayor's getting that kind of pressure. >> how do you balance it? >> you don't, and that's the bottom line, you don't balance. it's a protest and the occupy folks are prepared to go to jail. we know how this works. it's a protest. it's just going to happen. >> just one last question, got about 30 seconds to answer it. should the mayor be invited every single year to the state of the union address by the white house? >> yes, because -- >> the mayor was not invited by the white house. >> yes, because he's the chief officer of the nation's capital. >> absolutely. >> legislators i talked to are astounded that the white house didn't do this. they think something went wrong somewhere, because the white house insisted it has good relation