U.S.
House slashes proposed spending increases for auto safety
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[November 06, 2015]
By David Morgan
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Despite public
outrage over deadly auto defects including faulty ignition switches and
air bags inflators, the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday voted
to slash proposed spending increases for vehicle safety including defect
investigations.
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In a Republican amendment to the House transportation funding
bill, lawmakers scaled back spending for the fiscally embattled
National Highway Traffic Safety Administration by one-fifth to
one-third from funding levels sought by the Obama administration and
approved by the Senate last July.
The lawmakers voted by an overwhelming margin to adopt the measure,
which will now be subject to negotiations between lawmakers from
both chambers.
A House Republican aide said the lower spending targets would
provide NHTSA with adequate resources to fulfill its regulatory
mission.
![](http://archives.lincolndailynews.com/2015/Nov/06/images/ads/current/beason_ag_sda_030614.png) The federal agency charged with investigating safety defects and
ordering recalls, NHTSA has been widely criticized in recent years
for being slow to act against defective products including General
Motors Co ignition switches and Takata Corp air bag inflators. The
ignition switches alone have been linked to 124 deaths and 275
injuries.
NHTSA has adopted a more aggressive enforcement posture this year
under administrator Mark Rosekind, who took unprecedented action
this week to accelerate the Takata recall. But lawmakers have been
unwilling to provide more money for the agency to hire staff and
modernize its computer systems, until NHTSA implements reforms.
Rosekind has pledged to complete the reforms by next June and said
congressional failure to address his agency's resource and authority
gaps amounts to a safety risk. Funding for safety defect
investigations has been unchanged for several years.
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Last summer, the Senate approved its own multi-year transportation
bill, which would increase vehicle safety funding by $46.3 million
or about one-third in 2016 and by $76.7 million or more than 50
percent by 2021.
U.S. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx proposed the same
spending levels as necessary to ensure NHTSA's turnaround.
Thursday's House bill cuts those targets by $15 million a year and
holds the overall increase for vehicle safety to 40 percent by 2021,
under an amendment from Representative Michael Burgess, a Texas
Republican who chairs the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on
Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade.
The Burgess panel is also considering draft legislation that would
award automakers credits against fuel economy standards and give the
auto industry greater control over the public disclosure of safety
recalls.
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