[Congressional Record Volume 146, Number 128 (Friday, October 13, 2000)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1778-E1779]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 TRANSPORTATION RECALL ENHANCEMENT, ACCOUNTABILITY, AND DOCUMENTATION 
                              (TREAD) ACT

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, October 10, 2000

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the so-called ``TREAD 
Act'' and I want to commend Chairman Bliley, Chairman Tauzin, Chairman 
Upton, Ranking Member Mr. Dingell, Mr. Luther, and the many Commerce 
Committee colleagues who have worked very hard on this bill for 
bringing this legislation to the floor at this time. Hopefully, with 
time running out we can convince the Senate to similarly take up 
legislation on this issue and we can get a bill to the President's desk 
before Congress adjourns.
  This legislation was initially prompted by the Firestone recall of 
some of the over 6 million tires used primarily on the Ford Explorer. 
As has become readily apparent during the course of our congressional 
investigation, both Firestone and Ford knew that there were problems 
years before they told the National Highway Traffic Safety 
Administration (NHTSA) or the American public.
  This legislation has many provisions designed to enable NHTSA to 
perform its job better and new measures to increase the safety of 
American motorists and give consumers needed information. The bill 
includes an increase in civil penalties, consumer protections against 
the resale of defective or recalled tires, and a mandate to NHTSA to 
update the tire safety standards, which haven't been updated since 
1968.
  In addition, I successfully amended the bill in Committee to require 
NHTSA to conduct dynamic testing for rollovers. The fact is that these 
SUVs, minivans, light trucks represented in 1997 some 46 percent of all 
new vehicle sales in the United States and they are obviously very 
popular vehicles.
  Mr. Speaker, according to NHTSA, rollovers are the second most common 
type of fatal crash after head-on crashes for all cars--but it is the 
most common type of fatal crash for light trucks, which includes SUVs, 
pickup trucks and minivans.
  And we know today that sport utility vehicles have a 3 times higher 
probability of rolling over than passenger cars due to their higher 
center of gravity. And we also know that although traffic deaths 
reached an all time record low last year, rollover deaths continued to 
climb--to over 10,000 fatalities last year. In addition to fatalities, 
rollovers cause 55,000-60,000 serious injuries each year.
  In my view, given the nature of the types of vehicles on our roadways 
and auto showrooms today, this dynamic rollover testing is overdue and 
I believe it will enhance information available to consumers purchasing 
vehicles for the families.
  The rollover amendment I successfully added to the bill in Committee 
tasks NHTSA with the duty to develop, as part of a rulemaking, a 
consumer information program that best disseminates the dynamic 
rollover test results to the public. Obviously it will do little good 
to the consuming public if the rollover test results are not publicized 
and disseminated widely. Information is the consumer's best friend--and 
I believe that consumers would be well-served when contemplating SUV 
purchases, for instance, at the showroom, to have such test results 
readily available to them. In addition, informational brochures and 
Internet websites can also be a valuable resource for consumer 
information.
  As the rollover provision makes clear, the rollover test requirement 
does not apply to recreational vehicles designed to provide temporary 
residential accommodations. My intent in offering this provision was to 
deal primarily with SUVs, minivans, light trucks--those vehicles that 
many consumers are purchasing today that have a elevated center of 
gravity, giving these vehicles a proclivity to rollover in certain 
circumstances. Nor is this provision intended to apply to multiple 
stage vehicles such as specialized delivery trucks or custom van 
conversions produced in extremely limited quantities. These multistage 
production vehicles are produced by small volume customizer operations. 
This production ``niche'' is filled by small producers who buy 
incomplete vehicles (chassis) from the large vehicle manufacturers and 
mount a specialized body and related equipment on these limited volume 
vehicles. Specialized delivery vehicles below the 10,000 lbs. gross 
vehicle weight rating such as ambulances, bread trucks and other custom 
made, work-related vehicles do not have a mass market and are not the 
focus of this provision.
  In addition, I also amended the legislation during Commerce Committee 
consideration to add a requirement that tire pressure warning systems 
become standard in vehicles. Such a standard could help save lives, 
help conserve fuel, and prolong the integrity of tires.
  When NHTSA looked at this issue in 1979 and 1980, it decided at that 
time that the technology was too expensive. In the last 20 years, there 
has been significant development in this technology and the cost is 
much less. In 1981, NHTSA thought that it would cost around $15 per 
vehicle and today our information is that it may cost merely $2.50 per 
car--for all 4 tires. So this technology is but a fraction of the cost 
that it was when this was last formally considered by NHTSA.
  For example, new technology allows modifications to the antilock 
brake system to measure the spin rate of the wheel and this is the 
technology that has now become a standard feature on the 2000 Sienna 
van.
  As I understand it, the way the technology works is that the device 
monitors each tire and relays information to a warning mechanism inside 
the car. When the monitor finds a tire that is under-inflated the 
warning light or sound comes on to indicate a tire pressure problem--
just as a warning light flashes when a motorist's brake fluid runs low 
today.
  I believe this modest safety addition will save many lives. It is a 
provision that responds to the testimony we received from the industry 
that they expect American motorists to be cognizant of the tire 
pressure of their vehicles, adjusting it from time to time to insure 
proper inflation.
  This is life-saving technology and I am heartened to see that this 
mandate for in-vehicle, tire pressure monitoring devices is now part of 
this legislation as it is considered today on the Floor.

[[Page E1779]]

  In addition, the bill contains a third amendment which I authored, 
the ``early warning'' provision. For the first time, companies dealing 
with NHTSA will be on notice that they must report information bearing 
on public safety much earlier than they have in the past. In 
particular, manufacturers will have to report incidents involving 
fatalities or serious injuries alleged, or proven, to have been caused 
by a possible defect. This provision applies both within the United 
States and in foreign countries where the product sold in that country 
is also sold in the United States.
  Everything we have heard in the last four weeks indicates we 
desperately need this type of provision. I have worked hard with the 
Republican majority to arrive at a workable and effective provision and 
the legislation we bring to the Floor now incorporates this important 
safety improvement.
  Finally, I believe we need to look at other provisions and other 
issues more closely as we proceed on this bill as well as other NHTSA-
related bills in the future. For instance, I believe Congress must 
ensure that NHTSA has sufficient financial and personnel resources to 
fully gauge important safety issues as they materialize. In the case of 
the Firestone/Ford fiasco the agency maintains it did not have 
sufficient information to trigger an investigation sooner. Additional 
staffing and funding for NHTSA earlier may have helped NHTSA notice a 
problem sooner and thus have saved lives.
  After all, protecting the public and making sure that the agency 
charged with automotive safety issues has the resources to do its job 
is really where the ``rubber meets the road'' on this policy issue and 
I hope that we can rectify any deficiencies in such funding before 
Congress adjourns this year.
  I again want to commend Chairman Bliley, Chairman Tauzin, Chairman 
Upton, Ranking Member John Dingell, Representatives Luther, Green, and 
other colleagues who have worked very hard on this bill and yield back 
the balance of my time.

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