Jump to content
News
Reviews
Discussons
Activity
Create New...
Close
  • William Maley
    William Maley

    By William Maley •

    NHTSA Needs More Staff, Senate Undecided On Whether To Do It

      NHTSA Wants More Staff To Better Track and Catch Problems

    2014 will go down as the year as the recall, but also the year where many glaring issues of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration were made evident - mostly due to the GM ignition switch mess. Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx told reporters on Tuesday couldn’t keep pace at current staffing levels with 75,000 complaints coming in every year.

    “It’s no longer reasonable frankly to expect an office with 8 screeners and 16 defects investigators to adequately analyze 75,000 complaints a year,” said Foxx.

    Now there appears to be change in the air. The Detroit News reports that President Barrack Obama is proposing to increase NHTSA's budget for its Office of Defects Investigation from $10.7 million to $31 million. The increase would add NHTSA to add add 57 people to a staff of more than 100 and also use stronger data mining and monitoring tools to detect problems faster.

    “This is about giving NHTSA the tools it needs,” said Foxx.

    However, some folks on the Senate Commerce Committee isn't fully on board with a budget increase.

    “We think there are ways too that you could reform and accomplish some things (without higher funding). Clearly, we want to work with them, but it’s going to be tough in this budgetary environment with all the constraints that we’re dealing with to get significant increases in funding for any agency,” said Senator John Thune, R-S.D, chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee.

    Others think the increase is a step in the right direction.

    NHTSA needs to do something and obviously they are getting a lot of complaints. (NHTSA’s) ability to field all of the complaints has been difficult in the last couple of years — and people paid a price for that,” said Senator Dean Heller, R-Nev.

    Source: The Detroit News, 2

    Go to articles

    User Feedback

    Recommended Comments

    roadwarrior

    Maybe a 1-time charge of 30M to update technology, tools, etc, that I could see.  I know government is ridiculously inefficient, but I can't believe that $10.7M only pays for 24 people.  That works out to $445K/year/employee.

    • Agree 1
    Link to comment
    Share on other sites
    G. David Felt

    Time to get serious about the US stop trying to push their democracy agenda world wide and being the global police force.

     

    Time to cut in half the 1800 military bases and 500 black op bases around the world. Bring these soldiers home, place a good size chunk on the borders to keep illegals out and cut down on the cross border illegal trade of weapons and drugs. 

     

    Then spend the other chunk of savings on paying down national debt and to increase the efficiency of agencies like the NHTSA.

     

    We need a president along with the House and Senate that will stand up to the business specialist and military and start focusing on the safety and rebuilding of our national infrastructure and schools.

    Link to comment
    Share on other sites


    Join the conversation

    You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
    Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

    Guest
    Add a comment...

    ×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

      Only 75 emoji are allowed.

    ×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

    ×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

    ×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

    ×



  • Subscribe to Cheers & Gears

    Cheers and Gears Logo

    Since 2001 we've brought you real content and honest opinions, not AI-generated stuff with no feeling or opinions influenced by the manufacturers.

    Please consider subscribing. Subscriptions can be as little as $1.75 a month, and a paid subscription drops most ads.*
     

    You can view subscription options here.

    *a very limited number of ads contain special coupon deals for our members and will show

  • Similar Content

  • Posts

    • A Horse With No Name
      Random Thoughts Thread

      By A Horse With No Name · Posted

      Exactly why the myth of totally free markets is just that, a myth.
    • ccap41
      Tariff Tuesday - Big Trouble in Little Crossovers

      By ccap41 · Posted

      Honestly, that's probably around when I'd buy again, too. I'm in no rush. I'd love a large EV SUV or truck, but I don't have the monies for an R1S, Lightning, Sierra EV or whenever the Scouts show up. 
    • Drew Dowdell
      Random Thoughts Thread

      By Drew Dowdell · Posted

      That's every car company out there. Toyota and Honda only exist today because of the US government getting Japan back on its feet and then later the Japanese government supporting them with currency manipulation and socialized pensions and medicine. Subaru was originally Fiji Heavy Industries which built busses, trains, heavy construction machinery, and was a major supplier of airplanes. FHI is still a major aerospace company who supplies parts for the Airbus 380 and just about every model Boeing makes or has made that starts with a 7. They also make military helicopters and both military and commercial drones. Mercedes-Benz, BMW, and VW are all here today because of the Marshall Plan and later their countries' social medicine and pension programs. Mercedes makes a lot of military and construction equipment purchased by governments. BYD (and others) is where it is because the Chinese government spent loads on battery development and incentives to its citizens to by EVs. Prior to that, BYD built their industrial might on building busses and other heavy machinery for the Chinese government and local governments all over the world. GM and Ford had major defense contracts during WWII, the 2008 bailouts, the Biden EV tax credits, the Obama cash-for-clunkers incentives, and much more. However, they famously have always had to manage their own healthcare and pensions systems which are what put them at a competitive disadvantage throughout the 80's and 90's. Stellantis's ownership timeline is too convoluted to even tackle, but Chrysler was bailed out in 1979, then they bought AMC/Jeep which had been kept afloat by the military, then they were bailed out again in 2008 by both the US and Italian governments. Fiat is/was a major equipment and bus supplier in Europe. The French government has always supported Peugeot and Citroen... the list goes on.
    • A Horse With No Name
      Random Thoughts Thread

      By A Horse With No Name · Posted

      Nor would BYD. The Chinese government has dumped a metric crap ton of cash into auto development.
    • ccap41
      Random Thoughts Thread

      By ccap41 · Posted

      They never would have gotten off the ground if it weren't for the government holding them up. 

  • Who's Online (See full list)

  • My Clubs

×
×
  • Create New...

Hey there, we noticed you're using an ad-blocker. We're a small site that is supported by ads or subscriptions. We rely on these to pay for server costs and vehicle reviews.  Please consider whitelisting us in your ad-blocker, or if you really like what you see, you can pick up one of our subscriptions for just $1.75 a month or $15 a year. It may not seem like a lot, but it goes a long way to help support real, honest content, that isn't generated by an AI bot.

See you out there.

Drew
Editor-in-Chief

I've whitelisted
Continue without support

Write what you are looking for and press enter or click the search icon to begin your search