toyota motor company. you discussed taking responsibility. what do you do, mr. toyoda, with that responsibility? han 8 million vehicles have been recalled worldwide. what do you do for your customers now? >> translator: first of all, to our customers i would like to say that toyota vehicles are safe. for example, customers are perhaps most concerned about unintended acceleration, and they might be concerned about our electronic throttle control system may have a problem, but i am here to explain to the american people that our engineers tried to reproduce those problems, alleged problems, and they've been working very hard, and as far as their effort goes, we were not able to re-create those malfunctioning, so at this point in time, i would say that our vehicles are safe, however, depending upon how the vehicles are used, on what kind of a roadway it's driven and how long it's been used, they may present different behavior phenomenon, so going forward we would like to really sincerely listen to the voices of the customers. we want to pay more attention to the voices of the customers, and i'm real

toyota. they have a perfect right to do. mr. r gilbert is a professor at southern illinois university. he did a study that determined that the system did not properly detect electronic malfunctions. and, of course, we understand that toyota disputes these results saying that professor gilbert's tests required a manipulation of the system that cannot actually happen on the road during driving conditions. and then let me ask about the 2007 study done by nhtsa. it was done on the lexus. they concluded that there was no defect in the electronic system. i understand you've been critical of that study. but i'd like to ask toyota and mr. ditlo about those three analysis. and ask when this sort of thing is done, are they peer reviewed? who takes an outside objective look at it? people have a right to hire an attorney and make an assessment. toyota has a perfect right to do an assessment. and then nhtsa assessment, i guess that was done internally, perhaps. they contracted that out. but is there an accepted peer review process to look at

mr. toyota got that message, not only from me, but from others. reated dismissively. actually, they used stronger language than that. so these are not common experiences. senator wicker, i call on you. >> thank you very much. senator boxer is under a time schedule, so i promise to be brief. let me ask you, mr. secretary, about these two studies, the exponent study commission in 2009 by toyota, and the study done by professor gilbert of southern illinois university. as i understand it, exponent is an organization is that is widely known in this field, concerning analyses of defects. nhtsa has used them in the past. they conducted an analysis of the electronic throttle system. toyota received a report confirming their contention that the defense cannot be caused by the etc system because there are fail-safes that prevent it. i want to ask your opinion about that study as compared to the gilbert study. this study was commissioned by persons who are interested in bringing a lawsuit with regard to these incidents. and professor gilbert determined that t

"toyota strongly disputes these completely baseless allegations being driven by plaintiffs' attorneys like mr. howard." toyota said in a statement it intends to fight against these unfounded claims vigorously. toyota also said the government looked into the problem and, quote, found no evidence of a trend regarding safety issues, unquote. >>> now a panel of engineers and safety experts promises to expose what it calls the myths toyota is spreading about acceleration problems. former national highway traffic safety administrator joan claybrook is moderating the panel in washington this afternoon. a man who survived an accident in an alleged runaway toyota will also take part. >>> all righty. tiger woods. he was seen practicing at augusta national yesterday. yes, the site of the masters where he'll make his return to golf. golfers who played with him recently say he looks in top form and they expect him to win the tournament. >>> microsoft will be offering a free version of its popular office software later this year. clark howard says if you don't want to wait, check out another free word proc

toyota. they have a perfect right to do. mr. s a professor at southern illinois university. he did a study that determined that the system did not properly detect electronic malfunctions. and, of course, we understand that toyota disputes these results saying that professor gilbert's tests required a manipulation of the system that cannot actually happen on the road during driving conditions. and then let me ask about the 2007 study done by nhtsa. it was done on the lexus. they concluded that there was no defect in the electronic system. i understand you've been critical of that study. but i'd like to ask toyota and mr. ditlo about those three analysis. and ask when this sort of thing is done, are they peer reviewed? who takes an outside objective look at it? people have a right to hire an attorney and make an assessment. toyota has a perfect right to do an assessment. and then nhtsa assessment, i guess that was done internally, perhaps. they contracted that out. but is there an accepted peer review process to look at the methodo

toyota strongly disputesthese completely baseless allegations being driven by plaintiff's attorneys like mrhoward, tim howard. toyota said in a statement it intends to fight against these unfounded claims vigorously. toyota said the government looked into the problem and, quote, found no evidence of a trend regarding safety issues. >>> a panel of experts meanwhile this day talked about what they believe are the real acceleration problems with toyota and they also expose what they call myths that toyota is using to cover up the truth. electrical engineers, auto safety experts, and a survivor of a toyota sudden acceleration incident were on the panel. one expert explained why the black boxes in cars don't always catch problems. >> what about fault codes and black box recorders? the automakers claim these prove their electronics are working correctly. in fact, the fault codes and black box recorders in cars rely on the very electronics that they're supposed to be monitoring. so you can't rely on them. if electronics mall tucfunctiona certain way, you can't rely on the fault codes. >> the panel

are getting hurt all the more because people are not coming in to buy cars in their toyota dealerships. thank you, mr. chairman, for the generosity of your time. >> as always. thank you very much, senator nelson. i will ask a final question and then we'll make a closing statement. i have here a sheet from toyota called the toyota management team. and it's interesting because the president and member of the board is obviously akio toyoda. there are five executive vice presidents. there are innumerable senior managing directors. and there are directors, members of the board, just two. and of the five executive vice presidents, members of the board directly under the president, akio toyoda, two of them are on our panel today. mr. sasaki and mr. ushiamata. and that's why i think there is some, you feel, or we feel, we both feel some frustration in trying to communicate our effort to get to the bottom of some of our questions. it's the -- it's the question of accountability. who is accountable. who makes decisions? many questions have come back that we are doing recalls as if that were a problem solver. a

toyota strongly disputes these completely baseless allegations being driven by plaintiff's attorneys like mrhoward, toyota said, in a statement to cnn. toyota tends to fight against these unfounded claims vigorously. howard and his legal team will meet in a san diego courtroom later this week trying to convince a federal judge to combine 88 lawsuits against toyota into one giant class action litigation. drew griffin, cnn atlanta. >>> if you already have health insurance, how will this new plan impact you? our chief medical correspondent, dr. sanjay gupta, answers your questions. [ male announcer ] when you look closely at the mercedes-benz glk, when you study its engineering, its safety systems, and when you consider who will be riding with you, perhaps the question is not so much whether you can afford to drive a vehicle that is built this way but whether you can afford not to. the glk. the engineering of mercedes-benz. see your authorized mercedes-benz dealer for exceptional offers through mercedes-benz financial. ♪ [ male announcer ] competition... it pushes us to work harder. to be bette

what reason can you assure us that this toyota recall is really just something that is an aberration as it relates to automobile safety? >> i would say this, mr. chairman. the toyota recalled, while wide ranging, is indicative of how nhtsa uses of 40 in a way to get to the bottom of something. when the secretary of transportation took office, they were observing certain issues with toyota and they felt so strongly about it that he went to japan to inform toyota that they did not feel that toyota was holding up its obligations to inform and interact with nhtsa in a way to address safety concerns and recall concerns. that effort began on december 15. and that was the day of my confirmation hearing which was a good reason the entire senior staff was in japan and not at my hearing. better that they be there explaining to toyota what they were doing wrong. and when i took office on january 4, i was updated about these issues and toyota was at that point beginning to get the message. i met with them personally for the first time on january 19, and i learned about the pedal situation. that effort was because of the analysis of nhtsa, the fast action

mr. chairman. >> reporter: on a day when the numbers were good, the news again was not. >> we will not rest until these cars are safe. >> reporter: lawmakers continued to press toyota over problems with sticking accelerators. again questioning executive from the automaker today. at one point during a heated discussion, telling transportation secretary ray lahoud he's now charged with, quote, cleaning it up. >> the toyota recall situation is very serious and we are treating it seriously. >> reporter: even as it's apparently getting worse. toyota recalling another 1.6 million vehicles now to repair potentially leaky oil hoses. executives say the latest recall is a maintenance issuend not a safety problem. general motors is also recalling

. >> i believe the toyota business model is broken. i told mr. toyoda that. when they have good expert people, professional people in north america making recommendations and then they don't listen to them, their business model is broken. i think mr. toyoda got that message. >> sreenivasan: 52 deaths are now linked to sudden acceleration in toyotas. the company has recalled about six million vehicles in the u.s. since last september. but today, a "new york times" analysis showed cars that were not recalled-- toyota camrys built before 2007-- have a comparable number of speed control issues. for the record, toyota is a newshour underwriter. toyota saw its sales fall 9% last month, due mostly to the recalls. in contrast, general motors, ford and chrysler reported increases, despite snowstorms that hurt business in the northeast and midwest. ford outsold g.m. for the first time in a decade, with sales up 43%. sales at general motors rose by more than 11%, and chrysler edged up slightly, by half a percent. g.m. announced a recall of its own today. the action invo

toyota. they felt so strongly about it that mr. medford went to japan to inform toyota that they did not feel that toyota was holding up its obligations to inform and interact with nhtsa to address safety and recall concerns. that effort began on december 15. that was the day of my confirmation hearing. that is a good reason why the senior staff on defects was in japan and not at my hearing. better for them to be in japan explaining to toyota what they were doing wrong than sitting in the hearing room in washington, d.c. when i took office on january 4, i was upbeat about the issues. -- i was updated about the issues. toyota was beginning to get the message. i met with them personally the first time in january 19. i informed them that i had learned about the sticky pedal situation. the executed the stock sale on january 21. that effort -- they executed the stop sale on january 21. i do not see toyota as indicative as an example of failure. i see it as nas-- nhtsa doing is job. we get the results we need. i think toyota in a wide-ran

mr. sikes' car tomorrow. >> reporter: to hammer through the point that they think sikes' car is safe, toyota called a pressce in a stadium parking lot complete with cars to show how the override system in the prius works. >> right now i'm doing in excess of 50 miles an hour and slam on the brake and see if this override system actually works. and it does come down. i put my foot on the gas the entire time but it killed -- it basically killed the motor. >> for more than two days, engineers, side by side between nhtsa and toyota went through this automobile, disassembling, reassembelling it, putting brakes on it and spending more than two hours trying to duplicate what was claimed happen without success. >> reporter: according to toyota, the data they were able to pull out of sikes' car revealed that he used the brake in excess of 250 times during his 23-mile ordeal. basically, they're saying, that data recovery doesn't back up his story. sikes, however, is maintaining that his story is absolutely correct. last week when we interviewed him i asked him pointblank if he was lying. here's what he said. someone

mr. administrator, do you believe that they have made their mistakes in response to the recent toyota recalls? and should they have pushed toyota to initiate the recalls earlier than they have? >> we pushed these when we have the evidence of the defects. >> yes or no? >> the answer is that we have responded appropriately. >> what authority do you like, with which to address the defects in the automobiles and public safety? please submit this answer. do you have a place -- have in place a ranking system with the priority of the defects investigation? >> the answer is that we do not, but this is profiled internally. >> thank you. we have heard more about the need to increase the resources available to carry out the mission. do you need these resources? >> we have more resources. we have the resources that we need. >> please submit to us, for the record, how much more resources that you need, and i want to have this submitted directly to the committee, and not through omb. in my questioning of the chief of sales, we have revealed the decision to recall the vehicles in north america, were made in

mr. chairman. >> reporter: on a day when the numbers were good, the news again was not. >> we will not rest until these cars are safe. >> reporter: lawmakers continued to press toyota over problems with sticking accelerators. again questioning executive from the automaker today. at one point during a heated discussion, telling transportation secretary ray lahoud he's now charged with, quote, cleaning it up. >> the toyota recall situation is very serious and we are treating it seriously. >> reporter: even as it's apparently getting worse. toyota recalling another 1.6 million vehicles now to repair potentially leaky oil hoses. executives say the latest recall is a maintenance issuend not a safety problem. general motors is also recalling more than a million compact cars because of a power steering problem. the u.s. models affectred the 2005 to 2010 cobalt and the 2007 to 2010 pontiac g-5. even though the weather is not cooperating across much of the country, auto sales actually showed a strong increase in february. today ford announced a 43% jump over the same month last year. hyundai was up 23%. gm, 11.5. chrysler, .5%. >> these numbers are very good compared to last yea

toyota president in a news conference earlier apologize to the company's customers in china. he says the country is an important market for the car company. it was mrturning eight petrova models to their recommended thlist. honda and the subaru are tied for first. toyota is once again #3 on the list. >> today, part 2 of a hearing on a construction contracts in afghanistan. the u.s. agency for international kohlman talk about interagency coordination and a proposed new government oversight agency to reduce waste and fraud. that is live at 9:30 a.m. eastern on c-span2. today, house majority leader steny hoyer, talks about the recently created bipartisan fiscal commission, charged with reducing the federal deficit. that is live here on c-span at 1:00 p.m. >> which four presidents lived past 90 years old. john adams, herbert hoover, ronald reagan, and gerald ford. find these in c-span is newly updated book "who is buried in grant's tomb?" >> it is a new biography of each of these presidents and you can tell a lot about people by the end of their lives. >> now available at your favorite bookseller, or give a 25% discount at the publisher's web site publ

mr. chairman. there's a great episode on a tv show where one of the characters in cages with a low-speed chase with a toyotarius and seeks up on another character which demonstrates the importance of this legislation. [laughter] voluntary can be a relative thing. you talked earlier about some of the voluntary changes the industry made to respond to safety concerns, but a lot of the changes that were made also think the industry initially resisted. one of the great things about the country we live in, we have a system that allows people from all different walks of life to work together both in a public setting like through nhtsa and through our private enforcement methods to try to hold people accountable and work together to improve the technology in automobiles. you mentioned that you had concerns about the use of electronic data recorder information and you suggested it could lead to more litigation. i would challenge that statement, because i believe if you had a system with standards for accessing and downloading that information and a clear understanding of what it represents you can reduce litigation.

mr. president, never, ever before have we had a focused operation in this nation that was dedicated to protecting the users of financial services. we've all read about toyota and the problems with its breaking -- braking system. i'm not here to characterize the legitimacy or accuracy of those complaints. but, mr. president, what is not in doubt is that there is an agency of government today which exists which allows a consumer of a bad product, like an automobile or an appliance or food they eat to be able to register that complaint and be able to get redress so that other consumers would not be adversely affected by a bad product, a consumer product, something you buy, something you use, something you eat, something you drive, something you manipulate. what we've never had in this country, mr. president, is a counterparty to that kind of protection when it comes to mortgage you buy, the credit card you engage in, the loan that you make, the check you deposit, the insurance policy you buy or the stock you purchase. this country deserves in the 21st century to be able to say to consumers of financial products, there's a place where we can offer some protect

regulate the other insurance companies the way they're regulating toyota right now, you can see how they can compete in the marketplace. but mr. speaker, that's the framework of how we got here. it's on two flawed premises. one, we spend too much money and the solution is to spend a lot more and the other is, we don't have enough competition in the health insurance industry, so the solution is, create a federal health insurance company. the solution is allow people to buy health insurance across state lines, fix the lawsuit abuse, reform the lawsuit abuse, provide for full deductibility for everybody's health insurance. i'd be so happy to yield to the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson. mr. thompson: i thank my good friend from iowa for hosting this special order tonight at a late hour. but it's important. it's important that we use every hour this week to stop what really is just a terrible attack on the health care of this country. my -- when i came here 15 months ago, i came out of health care. my 28 years working in nonprofit community health care, serving people who were facing life-changing disease and disability

mr. toyota got that message, not only from me, but from others. nk you will see some changes in the way that they do business. >> thank you. >> i am also told that mr. medford and his team were treated dismissively. actually, they used stronger language than that. so these are not common experiences. senator wicker, i call on you. >> thank you very much. senator boxer is under a time schedule, so i promise to be brief. let me ask you, mr. secretary, about these two studies, the exponent study commission in 2009 by toyota, and the study done by professor gilbert of southern illinois university. as i understand it, exponent is an organization is that is widely known in this field, concerning analyses of defects. nhtsa has used them in the past. they conducted an analysis of the electronic throttle system. toyota received a report confirming their contention that the defense cannot be caused by the etc system because there are fail-safes that prevent it. i want to ask your opinion about that study as compared to the gilbert study. this study was commi