Claire McCaskill

With great power and influence comes great responsibility, and no one will debate that probably the leagues you represent here today have more power and influence in our country than maybe any other institutions that I can think of.

Bud Selig has never sanctioned an MLB player for domestic violence. Never in 22 years.

What we really have to do here is look to see what you are doing independently to investigate these cases.

Let me correct the record on the NBA questions about punishment.

Professional sports, with very few exceptions, have done little to hold those who commit this crime accountable.

Domestic violence for too long has gone both under-reported, under-prosecuted, and under-sentenced.

The bright light of public attention needs to be turned on at a very high wattage at a problem that exists in the shadows in a very dark and scary place.

We have had more recalls in the last year and a half in American car manufacturing than in the history of American car manufacturing.

Do you understand the issue here? What is going on here is a refusal to characterize a problem in a way that is clearly understandable to the consumer.

Well, I will tell you what. If I get a letter saying, 'We are investigating something; would you bring your car in so you can help us?', I am busy.

I would like to see the notices that went to your drivers.

I have asked the very same question you have asked: What is the practical difference for the customer? And I have been told: None.

Because you guys aren't even comfortable with being consistent as to whether or not you are telling NHTSA it is a service campaign or a safety recall.

Well, that is worrisome to me.

Honda is under investigation for failure to provide early-warning reports to NHTSA related to the deaths the company has linked to Takata airbags.

Takata itself is also under investigation by NHTSA and Federal prosecutors over troubling claims that it might have known a long time before it notified its auto manufacturer customers of the public safety defects associated with millions…

I find it troubling, but, more importantly, I am sad that I am not surprised, that we find ourselves examining another example of manufacturers' failure to fulfill safety obligations that could have saved lives.

The frustrating part from here is that this program was supposed to be identifying things like Ebola...

Well, I understand that anthrax is a threat, although I am worried about the fact that a dose was $2.26 in 1999 and we issued a contract to procure doses for $24.50 6 years later.

BioShield was passed in 2004 to protect the United States against chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) threats to national security.

I'm worried that the programming money for this Agency has been flatlined for a decade.

We're not talking about abstractions. We're talking about real impacts on real people's lives.

I think the remaining manufacturers that are holding out on this bill are doing a great disservice to the driving public.

Have you offered language that you think would fix that?

I think that the public wants this agency to have the resources that they need, and I think it's very frightening for all of us when we read about these safety defects which seem to be occurring on a daily basis.