Obama's proposal for the 2016 fiscal year would provide the
equivalent of 59 new employees for the National Highway Traffic
Safety Administration (NHTSA). The agency has struggled to get a
handle on defective ignition switches by General Motors Co and
malfunctioning air bags by Takata Corp that have been linked to at
least 56 deaths.
Obama asked Congress to boost the agency's funding 9 percent to $908
million in the next fiscal year, which starts on Oct. 1. Much of
that increase would go toward hiring additional inspectors and more
powerful data mining tools to spot possible safety defects among the
flood of reports the agency receives each year.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Feb/03/images/ads/current/Hallies_sda_010615.png) The proposed increase in funding for NHSTA would more than triple
the amount budgeted for investigations of safety defects, to $31.3
million. That would enable the agency to set up an outreach campaign
aimed at encouraging more drivers to file product-safety complaints.
Consumer complaints to NHTSA nearly doubled to 75,000 in 2014, and
the new wave of recalls may lead to even more flaws being
discovered, NHTSA Administrator Mark Rosekind has said. The office
only has 12 employees responsible for identifying possible safety
defects.
Republicans who have often been reluctant to fund many of Obama's
domestic proposals signed off on an $11 million increase for the
agency last year.
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But they have been unwilling to increase the maximum fine that NHTSA
can impose from $35 million to $300 million, as the administration
has asked. NHTSA fined GM $35 million in June for failing to
properly handle the ignition-switch recall, which involved 2.6
million vehicles.
NHTSA also hit Honda with two fines totaling $70 million in January
for failing to report accident and warranty data.
(Fixes typo in "Monday" in first paragraph.)
(Reporting by Andy Sullivan; Editing by John Whitesides and Jonathan
Oatis)
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