GM ignition switch recall: 5 things to know from congressional hearing

Congressional members appeared to hold nothing back when questioning General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator David Friedman during a Tuesday hearing on the delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles.

DETROIT, MI- Members of Congress appeared to hold nothing back when questioning General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra and National Highway Traffic Safety Administration administrator David Friedman during a Tuesday hearing on the delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles.

The hearing – entitled “The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Why Did It Take So Long?” – was called by the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. It lasted more than four hours and featured questions from over 20 panel members.

Discussions during the hearing 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.

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.

The ignition switch problem has been linked to at least 13 deaths and 31 front-end crashes.

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.

As the process continues, here are five things to know from the Tuesday hearing:

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. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

5. Didn’t meet specifications: Those words were a pinnacle point of the more than two and a half hour hearing with Barra. At one point, they even led to a cover-up question because GM changed the part without changing its part number– a highly unusual occurrence – and the new part also didn’t meet GM’s specifications.

“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.

According to testimony and documents submitted to the committee, GM knew the ignition switches didn’t meet its own expectations about the ignition switches in the early-2000s, but did not recall the vehicles until last month.

4. Compensation? 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 open a compensation fund for the victims’ family members, many who attended the hearing with photos of their deceased loved ones.

“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.

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. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

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.”

3. Finger pointing: Blame and accusations were getting tossed around by everyone expect Barra.

Friedman, who became acting NHTSA administrator May 15, said the government safety watchdog believes GM withheld information regarding the vehicles.

"General Motors has now provided new information ... had this information been available earlier; it would have likely changed NHTSA's approach to this issue," he said during his opening remarks. 

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.

At least twice since the vehicles launched, NHTSA declined to open an official investigation into the vehicles even after numerous fatal accidents occurred without the airbag inflating.

General Motors CEO Mary Barra takes her seat on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, prior to testifying before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Rep. Tim Murphy, R-Pa., blamed both GM and NHTSA for the delayed recalls and deaths.

“What we have here is failure to communicate, and the results were deadly -- a failure to communicate both between and within GM and NHTSA,” said Murphy, who is chairing the committee.

While Barra said no one has been fired or reprimanded for the ignition switch recall because officials are just a few weeks into an internal investigation, she promised something would be done.

“We will take serious steps and hold people accountable,” she said.

2. Investigations everywhere: The word “investigation” was arguably uttered more times than any other words besides “NHTSA” and “GM.”

Everyone is either getting investigated by others and/or investigating themselves.

NHTSA and GM face external investigations from the House and Senate; GM faces an investigation from NHTSA; GM has hired former U.S. Attorney Anton Valukas to conduct an internal investigation; and there have been reports of the U.S. Justice Department jumping of the investigation bandwagon.

The GM internal investigation was arguably the center of most of the talk on Tuesday. Barra constantly referred to the investigation when she didn’t know the answer to a question from panel members.

“I need to get the results of the study to make all determinations," she said in response to the cover-up and bailout question.

David Friedman, the acting head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, April 1, 2014, before the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on Oversight and Investigation. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Barra also referred to the investigation when asked about when GM found out about the ignition switch problem, who may have signed off on the parts switch and a number of others.

1. Just the beginning: Tuesday was just the start to what is expected to be a long process of investigations, finger pointing and political jargon.

Everyone’s investigations will take time, and one person during a press conference with the families of some victims involved with the crashes called this the “tip of the iceberg.”

Many 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.

Friedman and Barra are scheduled for a new hearing Wednesday with the Senate Subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety, and Insurance about the delayed recalls. The 10 a.m. hearing will be webcast live via the Senate Commerce Committee website.

Editor's note: MLive automotive reporter Michael Wayland covered the hearing remotely from Detroit.

Check back to MLive for more information.