Foor Statement: Stars on Cars Funding Amendment

FLOOR STATEMENT: STARS ON CARS FUNDING AMENDMENT

Mr. President, I ask that the pending business be temporarily set aside, call up Amendment 2147, and ask for its immediate consideration.

I commend Chairman Bond and Ranking Member Murray on their efforts to produce a good bill with limited resources and am particularly grateful for the strong support this bill provides for highway safety programs. I rise today to draw attention to a small, but important amendment I have offered to the pending Treasury-Transportation Appropriations bill.

My amendment calls for a one-time increase of $6 million for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "New Car Assessment Program," also known as NCAP [N-CAP]. This program is the source for the familiar safety "star ratings" we see so often on television advertisements for cars and trucks these days. These ratings clearly indicate the level of safety an automobile has in frontal and side-impact crashes, as well as rollover situations. These ratings provide vital information for consumers seeking to protect their families when buying a new car.

Earlier this year, with the assistance of Senators Bond, Inhofe, Lott, Jeffords, and others, Congress passed my "Stars on Cars" initiative that places these N-CAP star ratings on vehicle sales labels. This language was signed into law as a part of the highway bill in August. I look forward to seeing this law implemented, as it will soon provide the driving public with crash safety data when it is most needed: at the dealership when purchasing decisions are made.

While my "Stars on Cars" provision in the highway law ensures that the star ratings will be available on sales labels, it does not guarantee NHTSA the resources necessary to actually do the crash tests. That is where this appropriations bill comes in.

NHTSA goes out and purchases new models each year, tests them as soon as they can, and then makes the star ratings available to consumers. Unfortunately, NHTSA does not have funding available to purchase the cars right when they debut -- in some cases, they may not have the resources to buy and test them for many months after the model is released. A recent GAO report evaluating the New Car Assessment Program identified these delays as a problem that needs to be solved if we are to maintain a strong crash testing program.

My amendment is deficit neutral and provides a one-time -- and I want to stress that, one-time -- increase of $6 million for the N-CAP in order to allow NHTSA to front-load its purchase account and buy new models immediately. By increasing NHTSA's N-CAP funds this one time, we will enable NHTSA to have sufficient cash on hand this year -- and every year in the future -- to purchase new vehicle models when they debut. Essentially, my amendment is a one-time accounting fix.

Providing NHTSA with the funds necessary to purchase and test new models in a timely fashion is essential to the new "Stars on Cars" law's success. Under the status quo, consumers will see star ratings on older cars in the near future and wonder where they are for the popular new models. They will not understand why ratings for new cars might not be available for months. It is even possible that sales of the new, unrated models could sag as a result.

We will forever be handicapping the effectiveness of NHTSA's crash test ratings and the "Stars on Cars" law that opens them up to the public at dealerships, if we do not make this one-time increase. Safety organizations, including Advocates for Auto and Highway Safety, have endorsed my amendment, and I believe it deserves the Senate's support.

I am committed to working with Chairman Bond and Ranking Member Murray to find a way to make this small, one-time increase. I thank the Chair and yield the Floor.

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