House Democrats Question Auto Safety Agency in Oversight Push

(Bloomberg) -- Democratic leaders of the House Energy and Commerce Committee requested a wide-ranging update on safety-related initiatives pending at the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration as part of a renewed oversight emphasis by the chamber.

Committee Chairman Frank Pallone and Jan Schakowsky, chair of the panel’s consumer protection subcommittee, asked for a breakdown on the agency’s work, spanning auto safety investigations underway, progress toward implementing inspector general recommendations as well as updates on several rules that the lawmakers said have missed important deadlines, the lawmakers wrote in a letter to NHTSA Deputy Administrator Heidi King.

In the letter, Pallone and Schakowsky wrote they intended to work with King to improve road and vehicle safety, adding that it’s “incumbent upon the committee’s leadership and its members to oversee and ensure NHTSA is in fact fulfilling its mission.”

NHTSA didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment Wednesday.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ryan Beene in Washington at rbeene@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Jon Morgan at jmorgan97@bloomberg.net, Elizabeth Wasserman

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