Former NHTSA Head Blasts Coziness Between Watchdog Agency and Auto Industry

[Omaha Steve]

Source: ABC

Regulators Went to Work for Toyota - and Ford, GM, Chrysler and Three Other Foreign Carmakers

By MARK SCHONE and JOSEPH RHEE

Calling NHTSA a "lapdog, not a watchdog," Joan Claybrook, former head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, said the agency must adopt "tougher standards" for safety officials who go to work for the auto industry. Claybrook is scheduled to testify today at a hearing of the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection examining NHTSA operations.

Claybrook, who served as NHTSA administrator during the Carter Administration, said she has found 40 cases of former NHTSA and Department of Transportation officials who went to work for the auto industry, including Sue Bailey, a former NHTSA administrator who went to work for Ford Motor Co., and Rodney Slater, a former Secretary of Transportation, who was recently asked by Toyota to head up a special quality advisory board. Claybrook will include information on the cases in her testimony today.

While ties between NHTSA and Toyota are currently under scrutiny because of alleged safety defects in Toyota vehicles, Claybrook's 40 cases also involved all three major U.S. manufacturers, BMW, Honda and Suzuki, as well as auto trade associations.

Under federal law, an employee in the executive branch is barred for two years after leaving government service from representing any matter under the employee's previous official responsibility. NHTSA should impose a longer "cooling off" period, said Claybrook, contending that the auto industry has become too cozy with the agency.


Read more: http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/nhtsa-head-blasts-coziness-watchdog-agency-auto-industry/story?id=10064918

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See the full 3 page story. Were these people protecting us like they were paid to do? Of did they protect car makers. If it looks like a bribe, and talks like a bribe, it is a bribe! I wonder what kind of cars these people drive?

[Mopar151]

1. Ms. Claybrook should also understand

How her Naderite loathing for car culture has driven away many of the people most qualified to work for NHTSA.

[Dr.Phool]

2. I seem to recall that she applied to the auto industry after she left office.

Nobody would touch her after her tenure. Well, except Ralph Nader.

[The Backlash Cometh]

3. Now we're talking.