Center for Auto Safety Calls on Congress to Preserve NHTSA Safety Funding

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 9, 2019
Contact: Grace Garver, (202) 328-7700, [email protected]

Center for Auto Safety Calls on Congress to Preserve NHTSA Safety Funding 

Despite over 100 Americans being killed by tragic crashes on our roads every day, the Department of Transportation (DOT) has requested an 11% reduction in resources for the life saving activities of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) for Fiscal Year 2020.
The Center for Auto Safety (Center) founded in 1970, is an independent, member-driven, non-profit consumer advocacy organization dedicated to improving vehicle safety, quality, and fuel economy not only for our members, but all drivers, passengers, and pedestrians across the country.
On behalf of our members nationwide, the Center calls upon Congress to appropriate budgetary levels commensurate with the scope of the task facing NHTSA at a critical moment in auto safety.
“Despite pledges to make a safety a priority, the administration’s budget request for NHTSA speaks to their true priorities – easing the way for industry self-regulation and a handcuffed enforcement agency,” said Jason Levine, Executive Director of the Center for Auto Safety. “Once again, NHTSA’s budget request is in line with the larger DOT philosophy of promising safety but cutting areas that actually deliver on those promises. It impossible to justify a 21% cut to the Vehicle Safety Programs, which are at the heart of the agency’s safety mission.”
Last year the Appropriations Committee ignored a request for inadequate funding to please those who care more about political statements than they do about funding NHTSA at appropriate levels. The Center encourages the Committtee to once again stand up for the American people.
Levine continued: “Money alone will not make any safety agency function perfectly. The ability for NHTSA to realize its full potential to save lives, prevent injuries, and reduce the economic burdens due to crashes on our nation’s roads lies with political leadership committed to fulfilling the agency’s statutory mission, a dedicated career staff, and the multitude of stakeholders with which those civil servants work on a daily basis. However, the agency tasked with overseeing so much of our nation’s traffic and vehicle safety cannot reach this potential with one arm tied behind its back.”
See the Center’s letter to the House Appropriations Committee here.
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Over the last 49 years, the Center for Auto Safety has successfully led the fight for lemon laws in every state, airbags in every vehicle, and recall repairs being made at no cost to the consumer. The Center is a membership-driven organization headquartered in Washington, DC and is also home to the Safe Climate Campaign which fights global warming by working for big, specific measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Center publishes TheCarBook.com, which has for the last 39 years been America’s most comprehensive car buying guide and now offers, exclusively for members, the monthly Safety TuneUp Report, for regular alerts on safety issues relating to their cars. To learn more about the Center, please visit www.AutoSafety.org.