General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra will return to Capitol Hill next week to discuss the company's exhaustive report into its delayed ignition switch recall. The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. Wednesday to discuss the 315-page report with the Detroit-based automaker's CEO and former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas, who headed the internal recall investigation.Watch video
DETROIT, MI- General Motors Co. CEO Mary Barra will return to Capitol Hill next week to discuss the company's exhaustive report into its delayed ignition switch recall.
The Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations has scheduled a hearing for 10 a.m. June 18 to discuss the 315-page report with the Detroit-based automaker's CEO and former U.S. attorney Anton Valukas, who headed the internal recall investigation.
"Earlier this year, Ms. Barra testified that she would not be able to answer certain questions until the company's internal investigation was complete," said full committee Chairman Fred Upton (R-MI) and Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Chairman Tim Murphy (R-PA) in a joint statement. "Next week we will have the chance to get those answers and compare the company's findings to our own."
In March, the committee opened an investigation into GM and NHTSA's response to consumer complaints related to stalling, airbag non-deployment, and ignition switch problems.
On April 1, Barra appeared before the committee to discuss the delayed recall of 2.6 million vehicles due to faulty ignition switches that have now been linked to at least 13 deaths and more than 50 accidents.
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) During her first trip to Capitol Hill, Barra 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.
Members of the panel 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.
Barra answered many of the questions from panel members by referring to the internal report, which was released last week.
GM, according to the report, knew about the faulty ignition switches in the early-2000s, but did not recall the vehicles until February.
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 first 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.
Valukas' report – a product of more than 350 interviews with more than 230 people and analysis of more than 41 million documents – found evidence of "a pattern of management deficiencies and misjudgments," but no cover up by the corporation.
As a result of the report, 15 GM employees who "acted inappropriately" or didn't do enough to flag the ignition switch defect were fired and five others have been disciplined.
The new hearing is called "The GM Ignition Switch Recall: Investigation Update."
Michael Wayland covers the automotive industry for MLive. Email him at MWayland@mlive.com & follow him on Twitter @MikeWayland or Google+.