mr. strickland. >> mr. strickland, let me say something to you. >> absolutely. >> there's a difference between the two of us, you were appointed, i was elected, mr. ackerson is going to be here soon. you're going to get a flavor of when i go home and have town hall meetings what it's like. as much as it seems like an easy thing, people ask questions trying to get temperature heart of the problem. i do want, again, this is not done to attack you personality. this is not about anybody's personality. this is about performance. this is a standard we have to be held to, both you and i, to the american public. as we go forward, i hope we're understand thanksgiving. most cars are 12 volt, 300 volt, 12 volt. i have trained in this because the concern was always about safety. you know what our guys do, some of the essential tools, i brought some gloves today. okay? first thing you've goton is this cloth gruff when you're going to disconnect or unhook the battery. okay? next thing you've got to do, this keeps moisture

mr. chairman. administrator strickland, i'm going have a series of questions. i would ask that your answers be brief and, of course, true. >> yes, sir. >> now the fire occurred on june 6th. and as my colleague points out, it wasn't until november that ntsa's follow up testing confirmed that this was not an isolated incident. it does seem like a long time. what we need to know, administrator strickland, is whether there was a valid reason for so much time to pass. so the first question is, what was ntsa doing between june and november that required such a long internal investigation? >> thank you for the question, ranking member. in june, once fire was discovered, after the fact, some time over the weekend, and we were notified, we had absolutely no notion of what the source of the fire was. there was three other vehicles around it. it could have been arson. it could have been one of the other vehicles. it could have been a number of factors. so we had to go out, figure out what happened on the scene, higher fire investigators and folks like that. and then we be

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 you. thank you, vice chairman, for clarifying that. we, the ca

mr. strickland administrator of nits and i hope mr. shirk its mark for coming today than when he last appeared before us. i also look at the -- look for to the testimony of -- mr. chairman thank you very much for holding this hearing, and i always appreciate the opportunity to work with you. today we again welcome david strickland administrator of the national highway safety administration before our subcommittee. at two other recent hearings a subcommittee heard testimony from the department of transportation officials. first-time regulations proposed by the department related to standards for vehicle fuel efficiency and then truck drivers can work between mandatory rest periods. at those hearings the majority criticized the department of transportation for considering stricter regulations claiming they were harmful to business and the economy. today by contrast the question is whether the department of transportation was strict enough in his regulatory oversight of one product the chevy volt electric vehicle by general motors. the ti

mr. strickland is more forth coming to day than he was when he last appeared brus. i also look forward to the testimony of mr. ackerson. and with that, i now yield to my friend and colleague and ranking member from ohio. >> mr. chairman, thank you very much for holding this hearing. and i always appreciate the opportunity to work with you. today we, again, welcome david strickland, the administrator of the national highway safety administration before our subcommittee. at two recent hearings, we heard testimony from department of transportation officials. first on regulations proposed by the department related to standards for vehicle fuel efficiency. and then on the number of hours truck drivers can work between mandatory rest periods. at those hearings, the majority criticized the department of transportation for considering stricter regulations claiming they were harmful to business and the economy. today by contrast, the question is whether the department of transportation was strict enough in the regulatory oversight of one product, the chevy volt electric vehic