he said he notified nhtsa of the test results, what he found -- tried to contact nhtsa. all he got back was an e-mail form saying "thank you for contacting us." can you assure us nhtsa is going to follow up? >> you have my 100% commitment that we will talk to anybody that wants to talk to us. we will look at studies that have been conducted, studies that have been done through the toyota program. we will figure this out. i know all of you think this is a serious issue. we think it is a serious issue. >> you not stopped building cars in the united states, certain models. are they still building those cars? are they going to pause? what is the status. on building some of their models in the united states, they stopped after your intervention. have they started producing those cars again? >> i do not know. i will have to get back to you on that. >> does nhtsa need the responsibility -- does it need to accept some responsibility? we heard today that they fell nhtsa tried to convince them it was the floor mats. is there some responsibility nhtsa shares in this investigation?

this is by far the largest ever find that nhtsa has sought to impose. the previous was $1 million against general motors in 2004. the amounts are symbolic, given that these are companies with hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue. $16 million is a rounding error for them. >> what happens next? have you heard from toyota? have you heard from toyota? if it goes@@@ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is there some history of fines against auto companies? >> it was not until 2000 that fines for increased to $15 million. there are going up at the rate of inflation. with the exception of that 2004 find against general motors, $1 million because they failed to notify nhtsa about when chilled wiper defects in 600,000 vehicles -- the evidence suggested that gm had known about this for two years. there have not been a lot of fines because of the companies generally want to recall the vehicles quickly. that is fewer vehicles you have to fix and there is less damage to their reputations. nhtsa needs the cooperation of the auto companies to make the current regulatory system wor

they are not electronics experts at nhtsa. there is so much concern in congress and elsewhere they're going to the world's best for an answer. we're not going to get the definitive answer for probably a year or more. in that video we showed you, we heard from rep bart stupak, a democrat from michigan. what is congress going to do? what does congressman stupack want to do when it comes to reforming safety laws going forward? >> members of the energy and congress -- energy and commerce committee are working on legislation now. i think you will see an increase in the budget of nhtsa. in 1980, they had 119 investigators. they have about half of that today. i think you're going to see, potentially, a requirement that foreign automakers designate a person in the united states with the legal ability to recall vehicles. the big issue is that the authority to recall vehicles at toyota rests with people in japan. there is concern within congress that someone in the united states should have an authority. that is something i think foreig

what impact will that have on nhtsa? >> when we were there, nhtsa the standards for utility vehicles. the automobile standard was set 27.5 mpg. here is another emerging safety issue that the agency has to try to get out in front of. we will certainly see smaller, stiffer cars that will deliver a bigger pulse of energy to people when they do crash, and the manufacturers have to figure out how to mitigate the crash portions in order to crash -- in order to pass the crash test. it may be material science will change, they may just to deal with what they've got. it will be an engineering challenge. >> there is a certain amount of gamesmanship in any regulation you put out. what adverse effect is that he started making big cars in smaller cars. there are some safety dynamics with that. the goal is to make sure you maintain safety and energy security. you can't really play that game. you have have parameters that you have to design. it doesn't already a just makes small cars compared to getting a big car, but to make sure that

he said he notified nhtsa of the test results, what he found -- tried to contact nhtsa. all he got back was an e-mail form saying "thank you for contacting us." can you assure us nhtsa is going to follow up? >> you have my 100% commitment that we will talk to anybody that wants to talk to us. we will look at studies that have been conducted, studies that have been done through the toyota program. we will figure this out. i know all of you think this is a serious issue. we think it is a serious issue. >> you not stopped building cars in the united states, certain models. are they still building those cars? are they going to pause? what is the status. on building some of their models in the united states, they stopped after your intervention. have they started producing those cars again? >> i do not know. i will have to get back to you on that. >> does nhtsa need the responsibility -- does it need to accept some responsibility? we heard today that they fell nhtsa tried to convince them it was the floor mats. is there some responsibility nhtsa shares in this investigation?

what i have been concerned about has not arrived in nhtsa over time. they're probably a little bit behind. going back tenor 15 years ago, we ask for a lot of additional people. the idea was to balance the budget and there is such a thing as investment. we really need to focus on that. how do you look at the centers and how these things come together. there are attempts that have been pushed back a bit. as we pointed out, there were recalls and other countries. we did not hear about it in our market. we have just gone through it very difficult time in the industry with indeed have a global reach, and we need to be able to hold all the people accountable. >> one of our viewers ask how a person can listen to to federal oversight. go to c-span.org. if you're interested in watching them -- n.y., your next. >> i think having doctors as the head of nhtsa, it is unfortunate that that is not occurring now. the problem is, we have almost 100,000 people and 50 million serious injuries around the world. having medical doctors as the head is very important. [inaudi

does n -- is nhtsa capable of doing this on their own or do they have to go to another agency? >> they have the good weather agency because they don't have the manpower or the electronics engineers. if something causes the vehicle to suddenly accelerate, they know it wasn't the computer because they switched it. they could never determine what was wrong with that computer. >> wrapping up the federal oversight -- in the from rochester, minn., you are on the air. >> i don't know about what the gentleman just said, he was a mechanic. if a fix one thing, another thing goes wrong. i was wondering, will they have to call back to get it from their country, and how much more data is being held back from going out on the field? >> i want to make sure that we understand your question. >> toyota is a leader of electronics, the things like the vintage data recorder, -- teh event -- the event data recorder. you have to send out to other manufacturers to allow the device to read out what happened in the crash. toyota's have more complex electronics. >> should new consumers by toyota cars? >>

what impact will that have on nhtsa? >> when we were there, nhtsa the standards for utility vehicles. the automobile standard was set 27.5 mpg. here is another emerging safety issue that the agency has to try to get out in front of. we will certainly see smaller, stiffer cars that will deliver a bigger pulse of energy to people when they do crash, and the manufacturers have to figure out how to mitigate the crash portions in order to crash -- in order to pass the crash test. it may be material science will change, they may just to deal with what they've got. it will be an engineering challenge. >> there is a certain amount of gamesmanship in any regulation you put out. what adverse effect is that he started making big cars in smaller cars. there are some safety dynamics with that. the goal is to make sure you maintain safety and energy security. you can't really play that game. you have have parameters that you have to design. it doesn't already a just makes small cars compared to getting a big car, but to make sure that

. >> back to this country, how many complaints does nhtsa get? >> they only get about 20,000 to 40,000 complaints per year. they used to get 100,000 or 200,000 per year. >> how are they handled? >> not very well. the agency, this gets into the resource issue. they do not have enough investigators to go through every complaint. what you find is the complaints mass up until there is a critical mass and it should be a warning system when they look at things as they come in. >> take cod, massachusetts. >> thank you. i was wondering if it is in the manufacturer's best interest to make cars? >> absolutely. safety sales. -- safety sells. it is the regulatory equivalent of war against the air bags in the early 1990's. manufacturers cannot sell enough air bags these days. >> what about the fact that nhtsa's a budget grew from 1980 from $15 million to $434 million. it seems as though it is going to keep going up. >> more of that money went into the driver programs, the highway programs, then it did into vehicle programs. we have been in balance. if you loo

the nhtsa has issued a $16.4 million fine. it is the maximum allowed under law. they found concerns in september but waited until january to notify. >> clearly, they have taken a fall here. i think the other automakers will pay a lot more attention to any issues. >> toyota has recalled 6 million vehicles. >>> astronauts aboard the shuttle discovery are spending a 15 stay in space. the poor weather in florida forced nasa to scrap the plan to lend it this morning. it will circle the world and try again for cape canaveral on tuesday. >>> it is time for a look at the weather again. nice to see the sun back. >> yes, it should be a pretty good afternoon with temperatures already in the '50s. taking a look outside, the temperatures are warming. they continue to climb across the region. there is lots of sunshine. it will be clear tonight, making it called again. there may be a little bit of rain on wednesday. it is nine degrees below where we should be for this time of year. it is a combination of the cool temperatures and biting winds from the north. here is the big pic

in addition, nhtsa's rule also fails to address medium- and heavy-duty vehicles. my legislation would require nhtsa to issue a rule addressing those vehicles as well. while they comprise a small percentage of the vehicle miles traveled on an annual basis, medium- and heavy-duty vehicles are overrepresented in crashes result ing in fatalities. in these crashes, an event data recorder would be a useful tool during the crash investigation in dirge the cause of the crash. -- in determining the cause of the crash. my bill protects privacy by assuring the data can only be assessed with the vehicle owner's permission when authorized by a court or legal proceeding or by a government motor vehicle safety agency. adding these recorders won't cost much. in their rulemaking, nhtsa estimated the cost for the manufacturer to install an event data recorder at just over $2 per vehicle. that is a small price to pay for the critical information that can ultimately be used to save lives in the future. vehicle crashes are horrible and oftentimes tragic. they result in damage, injurie

, in discussion on the federal oversight of car safety standards with former administrator of that nhtsa. the president and ceo of the alliance of automobile manufacturers. yours can call in or tweet their questions -- viewers can call in or tweet their questions. >> c-span, our public affairs content is available on television, radio, and online. you can connect with us on twitter, facebook, and youtube. signup for our e-mails at c- span.org. >> several experts in nuclear security talk about president obama's trip to prague to sign a nuclear arms reduction treaty. they also discussed next week's nuclear security summit here in washington. this was posted at the csis and it is about 55 minutes. >> you'll find an example of our critical questions. this is sharon squassoni's critical questions on the nuclear security summit. this will also be a website. i would like to introduce my colleagues -- dr. alex questions -- dr. andrew kuchins. >> it is a great pleasure to be here. thank you for joining us for our briefing. i will not talk about my personal over-under on tiger woods performance at

that is among 7,000 documents that toyota handed over to government officials and may explain why nhtsahe japanese auto maker with $16.4 million fine for not bringing safety concerns to government officials in a timely fashion. 31 dealerships were notified of the pedal problems in 2009 months before the u.s. recall began. some paint it as evidence of wrongdoing, one crisis management expert believes it's very typical of what happens inside big corporations during times of trouble. not a cover-up but denial feeding a bunker mentality. >> people are hysterical, they are hiding, they're hoping it will blow over. they hope somebody else will handle it. i have yet to see a corporate crisis where the company behaves the way they would in a hollywood portrayal of it. >> reporter: the document could however call big problems in the courtroom where toyota is facing class action and individual product liability lawsuits. fox news, by the way, contacted irve miller who politely declined further comment. in washington, brian wilson, fox news. >> chris: republicans are striking back at senate judici

>> yeah, erin, as expected, toyota has agreed to pay the largest fine ever issued by nhtsa, the national highway traffic safety administration, just under $16.4 million. just a few minutes ago, secretary of transportation ray lahood saying he is pleased toyota has accepted responsibility for violating legal obligations to report any defects promptly and goes on to say that the department of transportation is continuing to investigate whether toyota has lived up to all of its disclosure obligations. that last sentence there clearly a reference to the fact that there are ongoing investigations, not only at the department of transportation, but also elsewhere in the federal government looking into toyota and the recall issues that have been facing this company over the last six months. so, again, toyota paying $16.375 million. mark? >> thank you very much, phil lebeau. >>> in the next hour, by the way, see if other businesses will stop doing business with goldman sachs because of the fraud charges. but right now, let's hit the markets. we start with cool breeze, bob pisani's here at the big

paying the full civil penalty, toyota is accepting responsibility for hiding this safety defect from nhtsa, the national highway safety administration, in violation of the law. it now has 30 days to write the check. natalie? >> tom costello in our washington bureau. thank you, tom. >>> dramatic rescues more than five days after western china was rocked by a devastating earthquake a 4-year-old girl and a 68-year-old woman were found under the rubble of a house. >>> thousands turned out for the funeral of the polish president and his wife. >>> the president has a busy week ahead. chuck todd joins us. chuck, good morning. what's on the agenda? >> reporter: good morning, natalie. number one on the agenda is finding one senate republican to go along with 59 democrats on financial regulatory reform or wall street reform in the wake of the whole goldman sachs business last week, the administration believes they have some momentum. treasury secretary tim geithner will be on the hill to try to get one republican. at least to get a bill to be brought to the floor. that's what could be filibustered t