Auto safety bill deletes cap on civil penalties

An auto safety bill would remove the cap and increase five-fold, civil penalties for automakers that intentionally fail to report vehicle defects or provide misleading information. 

The Senate bill introduced Tuesday would increase the civil penalty for automakers from $5,000 a vehicle to $25,000 and remove the cap on civil fines, which are $16.4 million now, the amount Toyota agreed to pay for not telling authorities about sticking pedals. 

A House measure introduced last week didn't include a similar provision. That bill is scheduled for a Thursday hearing in the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 was introduced today by Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.). 

A Senate hearing is expected soon, Rockefeller said. 

The measure also would authorize $60 million more than the fiscal 2010 level of $140 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration -- increasing each year between fiscal 2011-2013 from $200 million to $240 million then to $280 million.  

The higher funding would be used to hire more safety engineers and experts, update vehicle crash testing facilities and improve NHTSA's vehicle safety databases. President Barack Obama's fiscal 2011 budget calls for NHTSA to hire 66 new employees. 

NHTSA has come under fire for its handling of the Toyota case and lawmakers have pushed for a larger budget for the agency despite its administrator David Strickland's arguments that the agency had enough money and the current employees can handle the workload. 

In a March hearing before the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Strickland defended the work of its 131 employees saying they were up to the task.