General Motors Chief Executive Mary Barra will testify before a House subcommittee on April 1, and the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration may also go before the panel as it investigates the response of G.M. and the government to safety problems with the Chevy Cobalt, The New York Times reports.
The Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has demanded extensive records from G.M. and the safety agency, and they are expected to be delivered next week.
At issue is why General Motors was slow to recognize that a flaw in ignition switches was causing the Cobalt, and several other models that used the same part, to shut down unexpectedly, cutting off the power steering and power brakes — and sometimes causing accidents. Something about the faulty ignitions also caused the air bags to fail to deploy.
G.M. belatedly recognized the trend and issued a recall; the safety agency overlooked the pattern of numerous consumer complaints, responding repeatedly that it did not have a basis for opening an investigation.
Ms. Barra recently broadened recalls of vehicles for safety problems. She was scheduled to testify, and David J. Friedman, the acting administrator of the safety agency, has also been invited to testify, the House panel said. Both were in different jobs during the time that the problems were overlooked.
The chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Fred Upton, Republican of Michigan, said in a statement, “Their testimony is critical to understanding what the company and N.H.T.S.A. knew about the safety problems, when they knew it, and what was done about it.”
