Senate panel examining role of GM legal department

[Omaha Steve]

Source: AP-EXCITE

By MARCY GORDON

WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel will pose questions to a new set of key players Thursday as it delves deeper into General Motors' delayed recall of millions of small cars.

GM CEO Mary Barra will certainly be asked about how she's changing a corporate culture that allowed a defect with ignition switches to remain hidden from the car-buying public for 11 years. It will be Barra's second time testifying before the panel.

But Senators at a hearing of the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection might sling their most pointed questions at GM General Counsel Michael Millikin as they drill down on the role the company's legal department played in the mishandled recall.

An internal investigation led by former federal prosecutor Anton Valukas — paid for by GM — showed that even as GM lawyers recommended the settlement of similar cases involving crashes where front air bags failed to deploy in Chevrolet Cobalts and Saturn Ions, they didn't alert higher-ups, including Millikin, to a potential safety issue.

FULL story at link.



FILE - In this June 18, 2014 file photo, General Motors CEO Mary Barra testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington. Barra makes her second appearance before a Senate subcommittee investigating the company's handling of a defective ignition switch in small cars on Thursday, July 17, 2014. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen, File)


Read more: http://apnews.excite.com/article/20140717/us--gm_recall-congress-deef123f6b.html

[Rod Beauvex]

1. Why would they not? Who is going to punish them?

The government neither has the will nor muscle to do anything about this. This what happens when you let corporations become more powerful than the government.