The cap on civil penalties that can be levied by U.S. auto safety regulators would be tripled to $105 million under a five-year highway bill expected to see a vote by the U.S. House and Senate this week.The bill would also increase the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s defect investigations budget to around $30 million per year from around $10 million currently, but only after implementing a series of reforms recommended by the Transportation Department’s inspector general in its scathing report on NHTSA released this summer. NHTSA has promised to make the reforms by next June.
A panel of U.S. House and Senate lawmakers on Tuesday released a 1,300-page report on the final version of the highway funding bill after weeks of negotiations. The bill has bipartisan support and the White House said today that President Barack Obama would sign the bill if passed, which would make it the first highway funding plan in a decade to last longer than two years.
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