Lawmakers to ask Barra if she can fix General Motors

Associated Press

WASHINGTON

Can Mary Barra fix General Motors?

That’s likely to be the underlying theme of many of the questions thrown at the automaker’s CEO when she’s in front of Congress for a second time today. A House subcommittee is investigating GM’s mishandled recall of millions of small cars for a deadly defect in ignition switches.

Lawmakers have signaled that they’ll ask Barra whether more significant safety problems could be lurking within GM, and about the actions she’s taking to make safety a priority at the nation’s biggest automaker.

After the small-car recall, Barra authorized an internal investigation of the matter and a companywide safety review. The investigation found that a pattern of incompetence and neglect within GM were to blame for the delay. GM has issued 44 recalls this year that cover almost 18 million cars in the U.S. in an effort to convince customers that it’s focused on safety. It says more are possible.

Anton Valukas, the former federal prosecutor who led GM’s internal investigation, also will appear before the subcommittee. Panel members likely will ask Valukas to explain any differences in the findings of their investigation and his.

Here are some other questions lawmakers likely are to ask Barra:

Q. How does GM plan to change the cumbersome corporate culture laid bare by Valukas’s report?

GM has linked the ignition-switch flaw to more than 50 crashes and at least 13 deaths. Valukas’ investigation found that a pattern of incompetence and neglect within GM kept the problem concealed for 11 years. Rep. Diana DeGette of Colorado, the senior Democrat on the Energy and Commerce investigative subcommittee, said this week she wants to know: “What are they going to do to break this culture?” Barra has acknowledged that the report drew a “deeply troubling” portrait of GM as an organization. According to her prepared remarks, Barra will tell the hearing that GM has restructured its process for making safety decisions “to raise it to the highest levels of the company,” among a number of changes.

Q. How will GM compensate victims of crashes linked to the faulty switches?

Barra says the company expects to begin processing victims’ claims for compensation by Aug. 1. Lawmakers want details. GM has hired attorney Kenneth Feinberg to put a plan in place; he’ll rule on who is eligible to receive compensation and will set the amounts. More than 300 claims have been filed. Feinberg has presided over compensation plans for the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and other disasters.