WASHINGTON, DC - House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) today responded to the findings from General Motors’ internal investigation relating to the ignition switch recall. The committee leaders announced plans for a hearing in the coming weeks to review the company’s findings with GM CEO Marry Barra and author of the internal report Anton Valukas. In addition to the report, the company has provided the committee with over 500,000 pages of documents within the last week.
“I spoke to General Motors CEO Mary Barra this morning. She asked for a thorough review and I believe this report reflects that. It will take time to scrutinize this over-300 page report, but the initial findings are deeply disturbing, suggesting that communications and management failures ran deep and wide within GM. The failure to identify red flags and conduct a recall sooner cost lives. It has been more than a decade since we put tough new standards in place so automakers and regulators could quickly spot patterns and fix safety risks, yet this devastating design flaw slipped through the cracks. It’s unacceptable. Ms. Barra assured me that she would come back to testify about the report and answer outstanding questions. We are expecting Mr. Valukas as well. The conclusion of GM’s internal investigation marks an important milestone, but our investigation continues as many questions remain for both the company and NHTSA. GM and NHTSA must continue to cooperate and provide us honest answers as we work to determine what went wrong, if there are gaps in the law that allowed the system to fail, and what legislative remedies may be necessary," said Upton.
“To date, the committee has received approximately 1 million pages of documents from GM and another 15,000 from NHTSA. The committee is continuing to review the evidence and conduct interviews of key officials. We will compare GM’s findings to what we have already learned, and the subcommittee looks forward to hearing directly from Ms. Barra and Valukas. We must have a complete understanding to ensure a tragedy like this never happens again," said Murphy.
