Capitol Hill Pounces On Takata Air Bag Recall - Should Suppliers That Have Repeated Safety Defects Be Banned From The US Market?

Capitol Hill increased pressure on the Japanese auto supplier Takata and federal safety regulators on Wednesday as two senators demanded wider recalls to fix millions of defective airbags and a House committee said it wanted a fuller accounting of how the recalls were handled.

In a sternly worded letter expected to be sent on Thursday, Senators Richard Blumenthal and Edward J. Markey scolded the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for its handling of the recalls.

The senators reprimanded the agency for allowing automakers to limit the recalls to certain geographic areas with “high humidity.”