Political Quotes

“Mr. President, in light of the late hour, just before our votes, I will submit for the Record a statement which correlates with the chairman of our committee, and I thank the Senator for so much of his cooperation over last year and all the investigations and the hearings that we did, as well as now. What I will say that is new is I will provide an update on the status of the committee's investigation into the defective Takata airbags. When we had the hearing last November which I had the privilege of chairing, we received testimony from several witnesses, including a senior executive from the Takata Corporation, which manufactures the airbags involved in the rupture and the explosive incidents that basically have lacerated people with pieces of metal. The airbag that is supposed to save their lives, in fact, is endangering their lives, and in some cases killing them. This has happened to two of my constituents in Florida. While the hearing produced some basic information about the problem, many questions still remain. Senator Rockefeller, then the chairman of the committee, other Senators, and I sent a letter to Takata requesting information and documents related to Takata's airbag defects. In their initial response provided to the committee in early December, Takata included a list of all the incidents it was aware of that had allegedly involved a death or injury caused by a ruptured Takata airbag.…”