NHTSA Budget Boost Shot Down by House Panel

A big budget increase for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) doesn’t look like it’s coming. 

A House panel has approved a spending bill that doesn’t boost the agency’s budget for investigating and dealing with auto safety defects. “We’re pretty concerned. You can’t keep talking about wanting to make things safer and more efficient,” said NHTSA Chief Mark Rosekind (pictured). “We’re going to do everything we can internally… but without certain resources we’re not going to get the level (of performance) that everyone expects.”

The bill will now move on the House Appropriations Committee, which is expected to take up the $55.3 billion Transportation, Housing and Urban Development bill sometime next week.

SEE ALSO: Automotive Whistleblower Bill Approved by Senate

Rosekind points out that complaints have nearly doubled in the last two years, jumping from 45,000 in 2013 up to 80,000 in 2014, even though there are still only nine NHTSA staff members to review them. NHTSA is also tied up in a number of safety probes into issues like the massive Takata airbag recall.

President Barack Obama was the first to propose tripling NHTSA’s budget to $31 million, which would allow the agency to increase defect team staff from 28 to 56 full-time employees. The proposal came after NHTSA came under fire for not catching GM’s delayed ignition switch recall.

The Senate did approve a new bill last week to reward auto industry whistleblowers, but nothing has been done about increasing funding for NHTSA. One Senator, John Thune, R-S.D., chair of the Commerce Committee, doesn’t believe a budget increase is the answer. “We think there are ways, too, that you could reform and accomplish some things (without higher funding),” said Thune. “We think the mission of the agency is an awfully important one — particularly given the fact that we’ve had record numbers of recalls last year,” he said.

[Source: Detroit News]