Mary Barra could not keep discussions on the “new GM” when testifying before a Congress subcommittee Tuesday in Washington, D.C. Barra, who has been CEO less than three months, was questioned by more than 20 members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation for over two and a half hours regarding the delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles that have been linked to at least 13 deaths and 31 front-end crashes.
DETROIT, MI - Mary Barra could not keep discussions on the “new GM” when testifying before a Congress subcommittee Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Barra, who has been CEO less than three months, was questioned by more than 20 members of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation for over 2 1/2 hours regarding the delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles following reports of at least 13 deaths and 31 front-end crashes caused by a faulty ignition.
Members of the panel – particularly U.S. Rep Diana DeGette, D-Colo. – interrupted and cut Barra off numerous times during the hearing, as the 52-year-old exec tried to replace “yes” and “no” answers for longer ones that were many times focused on the “new GM” rather than the pre-bankrupt company that approved the ignition switches knowing they didn’t meet the company’s own specifications.
“Today, if there’s a safety issue, we take action,” Barra said during questioning from Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., about how GM balances cost and safety. “(If) we know there is a defect on our vehicles, we do not look at the cost associated with it. We look at the speed in which we can fix the issue. ”
Barra, who said she did not review the more than 200,000 documents GM submitted to the committee for the hearing, said the company no longer debates cost when it comes to safety concerns: “We moved from a cost culture after the bankruptcy to a customer culture,” she said.
General Motors CEO Mary Barra pauses as she testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. The committee is looking for answers from Barra about safety defects and mishandled recall of 2.6 million small cars with a faulty ignition switch that's been linked to 13 deaths and dozen of crashes. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)According to testimony and documents submitted to the committee, GM knew about the faulty ignition switches in the early-2000s, but did not recall the vehicles until last month.
Vehicles with the faulty ignition switches can cause the key to move out of the “run” position to the “accessory” or “off” positions, leading to a loss of power. If the key turns to one of those positions, officials say the front air bags may not work if there's a crash.
Discussions during the hearing – entitled “The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?” – ranged from hypothetical situations about what could have happened if GM had acted differently to a possible cover up of the ignition switch problem in the mid-2000s.
“Do you think there was a cover up or it was sloppy work?” asked Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. She followed up with, “Do you think it had anything to do with the auto bailout?”
Barra, who says she originally heard about the ignition switch problem Jan. 31, answered both questions by referring to an ongoing internal investigation from former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas, who GM has hired.
“I need to get the results of the study to make all determinations," she said.
The cover-up questions were spawned by research of documents and testimonies from the committee that were recently released in a memo. The documents, officials say, show GM approved an ignition switch that didn’t meet its own specifications and even changed the part without changing its part number – a highly unusual occurrence. The new part also didn’t meet GM’s specifications.
“If a part doesn’t meet the specification, why in the world would you not refuse it and only accept a part that meets the specification?” asked Joe Barton, R-Texas, a former engineer.
Barton called one of Barra’s answers regarding why GM would purchase a part that didn’t meet the company’s specifications “gobbledygook.”
According to the documents, GM also opened numerous internal investigations into the now-recalled vehicles since the early-2000s, but did not recall the vehicles due to a number of reasons, including "tooling cost" and piece price being "too high."
House Oversight and Investigations subcommittee Chairman Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., watches at left as the subcommittee's ranking member, Rep. Diana DeGette, D-Colo. holds up a GM ignition switch, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, as General Motors CEO Mary Barra testified before the committee. The committee is looking for answers from Barra about safety defects and mishandled recall of 2.6 million small cars with a faulty ignition switch that's been linked to 13 deaths and dozen of crashes. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)Panel members on numerous occasions brought up that if GM had spent money to fix the ignition switches with a 57-cent part a decade ago, lives may have been saved.
Barra emphasized several times that the post-bankrupt GM has changed the way it operates.
“All I can tell you is today’s General Motors, we are focused on safety,” Barra said.
GM says is will take a $750 million charge in the first quarter to account for the ignition switch recall and several other recent recalls. Barra said if GM had recalled the vehicles eight years ago, it may have cost less than $100 million.
Following the recall announcement, GM announced the hiring of Valukas for the internal investigation as well as a new safety executive. During her opening testimony, Barra also announced GM has hired attorney Kenneth Feinberg, who has handled compensation issues for victims and their families harmed in the 9/11 attacks, BP oil spill and Boston Marathon bombing.
Numerous politicians, including some on the committee, have demanded GM to open up a compensation fund for the victims’ families, many of which were in attendance at the hearing with photos of their deceased loved one.
“These deaths were needless,” said U.S. Rep Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., before asking about how GM will handle accidents that happened before the company’s bankruptcy as well as its plans to possibly compensate vehicle owners and/or their families.
Barra was asked numerous times if GM plans to compensate those affected by the recall, saying the company is just beginning to work with Feinberg.
“We have not made any decisions,” she said, adding it will probably take 30 to 60 days “to evaluate the situation.”
Some officials speculated that the amount of deaths being reported may increase because the numbers currently released by GM are only those that were involved in front-end crashes.
Murphy, who is chairing the committee, blamed both GM and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the delayed recall and deaths.
Photographs are placed along the railings on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, before the arrival of General Motors CEO Mary Barra, who will testify before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. The committee is looking for answers from Barra about safety defects and mishandled recall of 2.6 million small cars with a faulty ignition switch that's been linked to 13 deaths and dozen of crashes.(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)“What we have here is failure to communicate, and the results were deadly,” Murphy said during opening remarks. “A failure to communicate both between and within GM and NHTSA.
NHTSA administrator David Friedman testified after Barra for about an hour and a half. Thirteen panel members spoke during the hearing, compared to more than 20 with Barra.
Friedman, who became acting administrator May 15, said the government safety watchdog believes GM withheld information regarding the vehicles. NHTSA, at least twice since the vehicles launched, did not open an official investigation into the vehicles even after numerous fatal accidents occurred without the airbag inflating.
"Our abilities to find defects also requires automakers to act in good faith and to provide information on time," he said during his opening remarks. "General Motors has now provided new information ... had this information been available earlier, it would have likely changed NHTSA's approach to this issue."
The "new information," according to Friedman, involved information "definitively" linking air bag non-deployment to faulty ignition switches, the unannounced parts change and supplier conversations on air bags.
The 2.6 million vehicles affected by the ignition switch recall include 2003-2007 Saturn Ions, 2007-2010 Saturn Skys, 2005-2011 Chevrolet HHRs, 2006-2010 Pontiac Solstices, and 2005-10 Chevrolet Cobalt and Pontiac G5 models.
Editor's note: MLive automotive reporter Michael Wayland covered the hearing remotely from Detroit.
Michael Wayland covers the automotive industry for MLive. Email him at MWayland@mlive.com & follow him on Twitter @MikeWayland or Google+.