The Gm Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long? Hearing Committee on Energy and Commerce House of Representatives
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THE GM IGNITION SWITCH RECALL: WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? HEARING BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS SECOND SESSION APRIL 1, 2014 Serial No. 113–131 ( Printed for the use of the Committee on Energy and Commerce energycommerce.house.gov U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE 89–888 WASHINGTON : 2015 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Publishing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:33 Jun 03, 2015 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\MY DOCS\HEARINGS 113\113-131 CHRIS COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE FRED UPTON, Michigan Chairman RALPH M. HALL, Texas HENRY A. WAXMAN, California JOE BARTON, Texas Ranking Member Chairman Emeritus JOHN D. DINGELL, Michigan ED WHITFIELD, Kentucky Chairman Emeritus JOHN SHIMKUS, Illinois FRANK PALLONE, JR., New Jersey JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania BOBBY L. RUSH, Illinois GREG WALDEN, Oregon ANNA G. ESHOO, California LEE TERRY, Nebraska ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York MIKE ROGERS, Michigan GENE GREEN, Texas TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas LOIS CAPPS, California MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee MICHAEL F. DOYLE, Pennsylvania Vice Chairman JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois PHIL GINGREY, Georgia JIM MATHESON, Utah STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina ROBERT E. LATTA, Ohio JOHN BARROW, Georgia CATHY MCMORRIS RODGERS, Washington DORIS O. MATSUI, California GREGG HARPER, Mississippi DONNA M. CHRISTENSEN, Virgin Islands LEONARD LANCE, New Jersey KATHY CASTOR, Florida BILL CASSIDY, Louisiana JOHN P. SARBANES, Maryland BRETT GUTHRIE, Kentucky JERRY MCNERNEY, California PETE OLSON, Texas BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa DAVID B. MCKINLEY, West Virginia PETER WELCH, Vermont CORY GARDNER, Colorado BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico MIKE POMPEO, Kansas PAUL TONKO, New York ADAM KINZINGER, Illinois JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia GUS M. BILIRAKIS, Florida BILL JOHNSON, Missouri BILLY LONG, Missouri RENEE L. ELLMERS, North Carolina SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania Chairman MICHAEL C. BURGESS, Texas DIANA DEGETTE, Colorado Vice Chairman Ranking Member MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee BRUCE L. BRALEY, Iowa PHIL GINGREY, Georgia BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico STEVE SCALISE, Louisiana JANICE D. SCHAKOWSKY, Illinois GREGG HARPER, Mississippi G.K. BUTTERFIELD, North Carolina PETE OLSON, Texas KATHY CASTOR, Florida CORY GARDNER, Colorado PETER WELCH, Vermont H. MORGAN GRIFFITH, Virginia PAUL TONKO, New York BILL JOHNSON, Ohio JOHN A. YARMUTH, Kentucky BILLY LONG, Missouri GENE GREEN, Texas RENEE L. ELLMERS, North Carolina HENRY A. WAXMAN, California (ex officio) JOE BARTON, Texas FRED UPTON, Michigan (ex officio) (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:33 Jun 03, 2015 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\MY DOCS\HEARINGS 113\113-131 CHRIS C O N T E N T S Page Hon. Tim Murphy, a Representative in Congress from the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, opening statement ................................................................... 1 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 3 Hon. Fred Upton, a Representative in Congress from the state of Michigan, opening statement ................................................................................................ 6 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 8 Hon. Henry A. Waxman, a Representative in Congress from the state of California, opening statement ............................................................................. 9 WITNESSES Mary T. Barra, Chief Executive Officer, The General Motors Company ............ 10 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 13 Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 133 David Friedman, Acting Administrator, National Highway Traffic Safety Ad- ministration .......................................................................................................... 57 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 60 Answers to submitted questions ...................................................................... 154 SUBMITTED MATERIAL Letter of March 31, 2014, from minority staff to Ms. Barra ................................ 103 Subcommittee minority memorandum ................................................................... 110 Subcommittee majority memorandum ................................................................... 118 Article entitled, ‘‘An Engineer’s Eureka Moment With a G.M. Flaw,’’ the New York Times, March 28, 2014 ...................................................................... 130 Document binder 1 ................................................................................................... 101 1 The information has been retained in committee files and is available at http://docs.house.gov/Committee/Calendar/ ByEvent.aspx?EventID=102033. (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:33 Jun 03, 2015 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\MY DOCS\HEARINGS 113\113-131 CHRIS VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:33 Jun 03, 2015 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\MY DOCS\HEARINGS 113\113-131 CHRIS THE GM IGNITION SWITCH RECALL: WHY DID IT TAKE SO LONG? TUESDAY, APRIL 1, 2014 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND COMMERCE, Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2:00 p.m., in room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Tim Murphy (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Representatives Murphy, Burgess, Blackburn, Gingrey, Scalise, Harper, Olson, Griffith, Long, Barton, Upton (ex officio), Terry, DeGette, Braley, Schakowsky, Castor, Welch, Tonko, Yarmuth, Green, Dingell (ex officio-nonvoting), and Waxman (ex officio). Staff Present: Carl Anderson, Counsel, Oversight; Gary Andres, Staff Director, Charlotte Baker, Deputy Communications Director; Mike Bloomquist, General Counsel; Sean Bonyun, Communications Director; Matt Bravo, Professional Staff Member; Leighton Brown, Press Assistant; Karen Christian, Chief Counsel, Oversight; Brad Grantz, Policy Coordinator, O&I; Brittany Havens, Legislative Clerk; Sean Hayes, Deputy Chief Counsel, O&I; Kirby Howard, Legislative Clerk; Peter Kielty, Deputy General Counsel; Alexa Marrero, Deputy Staff Director; Brian McCullough, Senior Profes- sional Staff Member, CMT; Brandon Mooney, Professional Staff Member; Paul Nagle, Chief Counsel, CMT; John Ohly, Professional Staff, O&I; Krista Rosenthall, Counsel to Chairman Emeritus; Peter Spencer, Professional Staff Member, Oversight; Shannon Weinberg Taylor, Counsel, CMT; Tom Wilbur, Digital Media Advi- sor; Jessica Wilkerson, Legislative Clerk; Michele Ash, Minority Chief Counsel, CMT; Phil Barnett, Minority Staff Director; Brian Cohen, Minority Staff Director, O&I, and Senior Policy Advisor; Elizabeth Ertel, Minority Deputy Clerk; Kiren Gopal, Minority Counsel; Hannah Green, Minority Staff Assistant; Elizabeth Letter, Minority Press Secretary; Karen Lightfoot, Minority Communica- tions Director and Senior Policy Advisor; and Stephen Salsbury, Minority Investigator. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. TIM MURPHY, A REPRESENTA- TIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENN- SYLVANIA Mr. MURPHY. I now convene this hearing of the Oversight and Investigations subcommittee, entitled the ‘‘GM Ignition Switch Re- call: Why Did It Take So Long?’’ (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 15:33 Jun 03, 2015 Jkt 037690 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\MY DOCS\HEARINGS 113\113-131 CHRIS 2 Ms. Barra, if you would like to take a seat, please. Thank you. This question is the focus of our investigation. As soon as the Chevy Cobalt rolled off the production line in 2004, customers began filing complaints about the ignition switch. These customers told General Motors that just by bumping the key with their knee while driving the Cobalt, it would shut off. In 2004 and 2005, GM engineers twice considered the problem and even developed poten- tial solutions to fix it, but GM decided the, quote, ‘‘tooling cost and piece prices are too high,’’ unquote, and that, quote, ‘‘none of the solutions represent an acceptable business case,’’ end quote. The solution GM ultimately settled for was to tell their dealers to ask Cobalt drivers to remove heavy objects from their key chains, and yet just a year later, GM decided to fix the ignition switch. In 2005, GM told their supplier, Delphi, to increase the torque in the ignition switch so the key wouldn’t move out of the run position and into accessory mode. GM was not alone in examining problems with the Cobalt. The lead government safety regulator, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, known as NHTSA, was also evaluating con- cerns with the Cobalt. But NHTSA didn’t look at the ignition switch problem, just air bag nondeployment. In 2007, 3 years after the Cobalt’s release, the chief of NHTSA’s Defects Assessment Divi- sion proposed that the agency investigate the Cobalt because he spotted a, quote, ‘‘pattern of nondeployments,’’ unquote, in Cobalt air bags that didn’t exist with similar sedans. An internal NHTSA presentation noted