U.S. Highway Bill Offers Mild Safety Regulation Reform

The long-delayed federal highway funding bill is heading for Senate approval with only a modest increase in regulatory powers, Automotive News notes.

The six-year bill would double to $70 million the maximum penalty that could be levied by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration against carmakers for safety recall infractions. Earlier drafts of the bill called for a $300 million ceiling on such fines.

The final bill also omits a call to give NHTSA power to take criminal action against company executives who knowingly conceal safety defects. It also jettisons proposals to equip new cars with warning lights to show if the vehicle has been recalled, ban dealers from selling recalled cars that haven't been repaired and requiring dealers to check and perform recall work on any vehicle brought in for service.

The bill dictates that NHTSA will not qualify for additional funding until it remedies major shortcomings in its ability to track safety issues. A highly critical report in June from the U.S. Dept. of Transportation's Office of Inspector General blasted the agency's ability to assess its own data, identify safety threats, use statistical practices to identify target issues and process consumer complaints.

If NHTSA resolves those issue, its annual budget would triple under the bill to $31 million. The funding would enable the agency to double its staff to 108, mainly by adding engineers, investigators and statistical analysts.