Neil Roland – Automotive News -

The Senate Commerce Committee voted today to pass a far-reaching vehicle safety bill that has largely won both automaker and consumer support, sending the measure to the full Senate.  The bill passed without objections from any senators.  The legislation, crafted in the wake of Toyota’s safety recalls this year, resembles a House bill that also is now on the floor of that chamber.

Auto-industry lobbyists have said they expect Congress to pass the legislation sometime this summer and that President Barack Obama will sign it.  The Senate panel headed by U.S. Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., today approved a number of bill revisions that were sought by the auto industry.  “This is a critical public safety bill that will affect the lives of millions of Americans on the road every day,” Rockefeller said at the hearing. Read the rest of this entry →

New auto safety legislation proposed in the wake of Toyota’s recall problems is drawing criticism from House Republicans and Michigan Democrat John Dingell, suggesting that changes are in store for the Democratic leaders’ bill.  Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee said almost unanimously today that the draft bill would unduly expand government authority and undercut automakers while they are rebounding from a severe slump.  “I’m not sure it’s time to pile on the auto industry,” Rep. Joe Barton of Texas, the top Republican on the committee, said at the hearing of the subcommittee on commerce.

Dingell, in a statement, said: “As with most first drafts of legislation, the Waxman-Rush bill has provisions that, in my view, require improvement, especially as they relate to the bill’s practicability, both for federal regulators and those subject to federal regulation,” Dingell said in a statement.  Chairman Henry Waxman, the bill’s chief sponsor, said his goal was to have the committee pass a bill that both Dingell and he could support. Read the rest of this entry →