Statement of U.S. Secretary of Transportation Rodney E. Slater on the Signing of the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act

Topics:  Rodney E. Slater

NHTSA
November 1, 2000

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
NHTSA 49-00
Wednesday, November 1, 2000
Contact: NHTSA, Rae Tyson, (202) 366-9550

In signing the Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability and Documentation (TREAD) Act, President Clinton directed that more be done to assure the American public about the safety of their motor vehicles and the equipment on those vehicles.

Our swift implementation of TREAD will help provide that assurance.

By providing stronger penalties, longer recall periods, enhanced enforcement authority, and increased funding, the TREAD Act will enable the department to move ahead vigorously to strengthen its safety defects investigation programs and protect the American public from the danger of defective products.

The Act gives the department the ability to learn more about safety problems in foreign countries before they become a problem in the United States, and enables the department to look ahead to avoid problems before they reach the scale of those revealed thus far in the Firestone tire investigation.

The Act also calls upon us to upgrade the tire safety standards and directs us to consider improvements in child passenger safety.

We will move quickly to make use of the new authority that TREAD gives us. We have already developed plans for improving our defects investigations and set targets for accomplishing the rulemaking responsibilities in the Act. We are committed to implementing the Act in such a manner to further improve public safety.

I want to thank all of the Members of Congress who worked to make this legislation reality. Particularly, I want to thank Senate Commerce Committee Chairman McCain, Ranking Member Senator Hollings, House Commerce Committee Chairman Tom Bliley, Ranking Member Dingell, Subcommittee Chairman W. J. Tauzin and Congressmen Edward Markey and Fred Upton.