The week ahead: Airbag recall examined

Lawmakers will examine auto recalls involving defective airbags that manufactured by Japanese company Takata this week as President Obama mulls picking a new highway safety chief. 

The Takata recall involves airbags that were used in cars manufactured by companies like Toyota, Lexus and Chrysler.  

The Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee will hold a hearing about the recalls on Thursday. 

{mosads}Officials with the committee said the hearing would “examine the circumstances of a series of recalls beginning in 2008 for defective airbags manufactured by Takata. 

“The most recent recalls for Takata airbags now encompass 10 automobile manufacturers and affect 7.8 million vehicles in the United States,” the Senate panel said. “The hearing will focus on how defective Takata airbags became installed in so many vehicles and the responses of both automakers and NHTSA to remedy the safety defect to protect consumers.” 

The Senate panel said it would also take a look at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s (NHTSA) handling of the recalls involving Takata parts and other high-profile auto defections in recent months. 

The highway safety agency, which has been operating with a full-time chief for most of the year, has come under fire for its oversight of widespread recalls at General Motors that involved defective ignition switches in more than two million cars. 

Lawmakers took the highway safety agency to task in the spring for its handling of GM’s recall, accusing officials there of failing to notice the trend of accidents involving GM’s faulty ignition switch for several years before the recall was issued in February.  

Obama is expected to announce a nominee to replace former NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, who resigned at the beginning of this year. 

Interim NHTSA Administrator David Friedman has been running the agency since Strickland resigned. 

Elsewhere this week, the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee will hold a hearing Tuesday about the Federal Aviation Administration’s appropriation bill, which is currently scheduled to expire in September 2015. 

Transportation advocates have been hoping that lawmakers would address road and transit funding, which is scheduled to expire in May, during the lame duck session before they turned their attention to aviation. 

The House Transportation Committee is scheduled to hold a hearing titled “FAA Reauthorization: Issues in Modernizing and Operating the Nation’s Airspace,” however. 

The panel is scheduled to hear from officials with the Department of Transportation, Airlines for America, Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Air Line Pilots Association, Business Roundtable and National Air Traffic Controllers Association.