Congressional Action

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: July 31, 2017 Contact:  Amber Andreasen, 913-205-6973, [email protected] Advocates: Allison Kennedy, 202-408-1711, [email protected] HOT CARS Act of 2017 Introduced

Safety first!

Perhaps Congress could grasp what that accident-prevention slogan meant when it was coined during the golden age of railroading in 1873, a time when the federal government managed to scrape by on a $290 million budget. But this week, safety priorities seem open to question as House and Senate conferees attempt to patch together a transportation budget that would spend a few hundred times more each year than it took old Ulysses S. Grant to run the whole country back then.

WASHINGTON — The push to impose criminal penalties on auto executives who fail to disclose deadly automobile defects hit another roadblock last week when a Senate committee voted down such a proposal.

Lawmakers and safety advocates who were pushing to institute criminal penalties for such behavior expressed dismay as that and a series of other auto safety reforms — including barring used-car dealers from selling vehicles with unrepaired recalls — also failed to proceed.

For Immediate Release
July 9, 2015

Contacts:
Bryan Gulley (Senate Commerce Committee Democratic Office) 202-224-7824
Josh Zembik (Blumenthal) 202-224-6452
Giselle Barry (Markey) 202-224-2742

Senate Lawmakers Propose Sweeping Auto Safety Reforms

Measure includes jail time, unlimited civil fines for concealing safety defects

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 10, 2015

Contact: 

Neal Patel/Michawn Rich (Heller) 202-224-6244

Giselle Barry (Markey) 202-224-2742

Tom Borck (Rokita) 202-225-5037 

Nicole L’Esperance (Blumenauer) 202-225-4811   

Key Bipartisan, Bicameral Auto Consumer Protection Legislation Introduced 

U.S. Senators Heller and Markey Team with U.S. Reps. Rokita and Blumenauer to Introduce Bill on Both Sides of Hill

Washington — National Highway Traffic Safety Administration chief Mark Rosekind on Tuesday sounded the alarm after a House panel approved a spending bill that doesn’t boost the agency’s budget to investigate auto safety defects.

Last week, a Republican-led House appropriations subcommittee approved a spending bill that doesn’t adopt the Obama administration’s request to triple NHTSA’s defect budget and double staffing. It essentially held the agency’s budget at the current level.

Lawmakers blast failures in GM crisis, want reform

WASHINGTON — In a rare display of consensus here, Republicans, Democrats and safety advocates are coming to the conclusion that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is in dire need of reform — even if they can’t convince the agency of that.