Connected vehicles or autonomous selfdriving vehicles. Department of transportation thinks of this as connected automation. Its really both. They both give you sort of added safety. Connected vehicles or basically v to v, vehicle to vehicle, vehicle to infrastructure, v to x or anything else, basically theyre all going to be able to talk. What we know is studies so far suggest that even two applications of v to v could prevent 600,000 crashes and save 1,000 lives. So it has huge opportunity overall. Potentially 80 of crashes that dont involve an impaired driver could be prevented with v to v. So we have actually introduced a rule making which has been accepted by omb for review just to try to set up a consistent piece of equipment that would be used for the whole system in the United States. Okay. When do you anticipate this being online . Or you know, are constituents the availability. Give me a timeline on that. Right now its been accepted by omb as under review. Thats kind of where we are, answering their questions. One year . Two years . Any kind of an estimate . I can tell you the proposal is to have it out. Ill check the final proposal. We have a specific in the proposal for when it will be on the road. My cautions just to say that our piece has it out proposed, currently under review at office of management and budget. Thank you. Next question, nhtsa has announced several initiatives and workshops on numerous issues over the last six months and plans to complete work on these topics prior to the end of the administration. Is that correct . Yes. How are you ensuring adequate work and thorough Stakeholder Engagement is done on these important issues before the final before the final actions are taken . Well, for a variety of activities they are in fact open Public Meetings. Retooling recalls was open. We had others, cognitive distraction, live webcasts for things. Right now the secretarys announced in six months nhtsas going to put out several things if youd like to talk about autonomous vehicles. We just held the first Public Meeting for that. Theres an open docket for that. So for activities leading to specific products, theres both some transparency and involvement from stakeholders. Very good. Thank you. What are the Key Takeaways from the Cyber Security round table that nhtsa held in january . Fascinating exchange. Because we had manufacturers in there with independent researchers and pretty much the whole mix. And i would just say, one, it was fascinating to see that everybody thought you needed nimble and flexible. Cautious about regulations. Because they could be outdated cybersecuritiwise before theyre even in place. And the other is everybody identified this as critical not just for protection but for the trust of the American People to see this automation as things get on the road. Very good. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Chairman. I yield back. The chair thanks the gentleman. The gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from california for five minutes. Thank you very much. Thank you, dr. Rosekind, for coming forth and answering our questions. And youre welcome to ask questions as well. But just wanted to thank you for all the work that you do and please if you would translate that to all of the good workers that you are surrounded with. My first question has to be speaking of workers and the people youre able to surround yourself with, do you have as many people in your organization that you would need to address all the issues that you recognize you somebody addressing or getting in front of . No. I had a funny feeling that would be the answer. But if youll let me, i will just say please. Well, thank you. Because this committee and the fast act is helping us get there. So office of defective designations, which weve talked so much about, has the potential now for us to hire 57 new people and address that issue. So thank you so much because thats a huge difference for us. 57 new people. Im glad we were able to make sure. Congress has the power of the purse. So thats up to us to give you their budgets, et cetera. Im glad you did that. But being an engineer myself and someone who understands how the best way to get in front of an issue is to be proactive, and an organization that has to do with Traffic Safety like yours, its very important that people understand that unfortunately its not that often that the United States constituents receive the benefit of other countries good work on issues like this. We tend to be the leaders. Isnt that the case . Not always, but tend to be the leaders more often than not. And i try and preface this by saying i am biased. But id like to say certainly in a lot of the Technology Innovation the u. S. Is a leader. Yes. And i believe thats the case both on the issues were talking about today and in many, many things. Its something we as americans should be proud of. But with all due respect, government does have its place, especially when it comes to safety of the American Public and anybody who comes to our great country and assumes that safety is a priority for us and that were continuing to make it a priority. So once again, thank you, doctor. Id like to ask you, as im sure youre aware, in february the center for auto safety filed a lawsuit against the department of transportation alleging that by failing to Public Technical Service bulletins, or tsbs, in their entirety, online for consumers, d. O. T. Was in violation of map 21s finally, on march 25th, d. O. T. Announced that it would publish tsbs, and it has been brought to my attention that full tsbs are now available on the website. I look forward to ensuring theyre all up as soon as possible. However, members of this committee worked very hard to have tsb publication included in map 21. And while im pleased that htsa is beginning to finally comply with the requirements, i think its unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to get nhtsa to make that happen. Id like to ask you about the Early Warning reporting system. That system was put into place in 2000 after the highly publicized Ford Firestone tire recalls, Early Warning reporting, intended to alert nhtsa to vehicle defects as early as possible, ideally helping to identify major problems and minimizing risk to the public. However, last years audit by the department of transportation offices Inspector General, highlighted some problems with the current Early Warning reporting system. It says that safety defects are often miscategorized and that manufacturers have wide latitude on what information theyre required to provide. Dr. Rosekind, what improvements or changes if any is nhtsa making to the Early Warning reporting system to respond to the findings in the i. G. Report . So this came up in opening comments. This is an opportunity to give everybody an update. There were 17 recommendations that the Inspector General identified. Early warning reports. Ewrs were one of them. We made an aggressive commitment to finish all of those recommendations within a oneyear period. So by the end of june 2016. And the Inspector General was very clear nobody ever does, that actually give them a schedule. We have six of those closed ahead of schedule and the other 11 already identified and on schedule to finish by the end of june 2016. Weve also done one other thing that nobody ever does. Weve actually set up technical meetings with the i. G. s office to tell them what our plans are to meet those recommendations. So we have an ongoing discussion with them to make sure we meet them in an appropriate closed way. So 11 out of 17 have been addressed ahead of schedule . 6. First 6 ahead of schedule. Were working on the other 11 which are on schedule. On schedule. Yep. It sounds like youre not only a good listener, youre a good action department. So i wanted to thank you so much for doing that. Ahead of schedules great, on schedules good. And i hope youre able to do that. Not that 50ud want to opine but i hope that on this side were as good a listener as you are. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes miss schakowsky from illinois for redirect. Thank you. Just a few weeks ago the new chairman of the National AutomobileDealers Association, or nada, said that or maybe its nada. Nada sounds dpsh i dont know. I dont know which it is. Said we shouldnt have legislation requiring dealers to fix all recalls on cars before they can be sold because only 6 of recalls are hazardous. I have a letter that we received today from callie houck, mother of raich sxl jacqueline houck, and alexander bringman, father of jewel bringman, and it says as parents of precious, beautiful, talented daughters killed by recalled cars with lethal safety defects we are appalled that you, its a letter directed to jeff carlson, chairman of the National AutomobileDealers Association, that you would claim that only 6 of recalls are hazardous. Our daughters were driving or riding in cars that were the very defects that you claim were not hazardous and therefore acceptable for your car dealer members to sell to the public without repairing the defects first. So dr. Rosekind, i think it really is important to clarify this point. Does nhtsa require manufacturers to recall vehicles if a defect is even not safetyrelated but all defects . Weve been at this before, havent we . We have. Yes. And a defect thats an open recall needs to be fixed whether its new, used, or rental. And we just heard the congressman say the assumption in any one of those circumstances is that there is no open recall, there is no defect. So do you plan to reply at all to the notion i mean, first of all, is that accurate in your view, that the deaths of these girls, women, was caused by something claiming to be nonhazardous by the Dealers Association . This is one of those ongoing challenges of individuals trying to sort of split. Thats why were pretty straightforward. Any open recall needs to be fixed, period. So are dealers prohibited, then, and should be prohibited from selling or leasing used cars until all recalls have been repaired . That was in the grow america act. And we believe any new, used, or rental should be free of defects. I hope that is really strongly communicated. I feel an obligation to the people from whom we received this letter and to the lost daughters of theirs that we make that perfectly clear. Thank you. I yield back. The gentle lady yields back. And that concludes questions for the first panel. Dr. Rosekind, thank you very much for your forbearance in staying with us today. Well take a twominute recess to si to set up for the second panel, at which time well reassemble. Cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. And coming up friday morning, jeff adeleson, politics reporter for the new orleans advocate will join us by phone to discuss the debate over the removal of confederate monuments in new orleans. New orleans mayor Mitch Landrieu has backed the City Councils efforts to remove a number of confederate monuments on public land. However, the city remains divided on the issue. And then hannah smith, senior counsel for the beckett fund for religious liberty, will be on to talk about the recently argued zubic v. Burwell case. The case deals with religious liberty and the Affordable Care acts contraceptive mandate. Sxris nove zellic, Founding Member of the 90s band nirvana and author of grunge and the government lets fix this democracy will join us to discuss fair vote which advocates for a variety of electoral reforms. Be sure to watch cspans washington journal beginning live at 7 00 a. M. Eastern friday morning. Friday a discussion on the challenges and benefits of integrating women into military combat units. A panel of military and Foreign Policy experts talks about the issue at the council on Foreign Relations starting at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan 2. Saturday april 23rd is the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeares death. And on that day the Folger Library here in washington, d. C. , which has the largest collection of shakespeare documents and memorabilia in the world, will be hosting an event commemorating his life and his impact on our literature, our language, our politics and our history. Book tv will be covering that event live. It begins at noon eastern time. And afterwards well have a live nationwide callin with shakespeare scholars. So you can join in the conversation as well. Henry folger was the president of the Standard Oil Company and a shakespeare buff. So he and his wife spent many years and many dollars collecting shakespeare artifacts, documents, memorabilia. Its the Worlds Largest collection of shakespearerelated documents. So join us on saturday april 23rd. Well be live beginning at noon from the Folger Library for 400 years of shakespeare on book tv. Next a hearing on improving Water Supplies through new technology. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing is 45 minutes. Our meeting will come to order. We apologize for being a few minutes late. We had a vote at 10 00. As i said, thats our daytime job and we have to do it. Drought conditions is still well, they have and they still affect many regions of the country. California and oklahoma have been dramatically affected. This morning we have witnesses which represent Orange County, california promising new technologies of desalination. And the u. S. Army corps of engineers. For the vast majority of the past six years, oklahoma suffered from a devastating drought event having nothing to do with global warming, i might add. As the drought reached its worst in the summer of 2014 more than 60 of oklahoma was in the u. S. Drought monitors extreme category. More than 30 of the states land area was experiencing exceptional, and ill put that in quotes, drought or worse category. Communities were rationing water. Some communities in the hardesthit areas look to reuse voice water and tapping unconventional sources, those for nonpotable used. Evaporating lakes and ponds in oklahoma forced cattle men to sell their herds and Oil Companies to search for increasingly Expensive Technology to increase production. Abundant rainfall occurred nearly a year ago which caused dangerous situations throughout oklahoma but greatly improved our water supply, at least for the time being. Our Water Supplies are also overtaxed with old and failing infrastructure not able to pace with demand. These problems affect communities all across the nation. Its not exaggerated to say that water supply issues limit growth and pose a real threat to local and regional economies and peoples quality of life. However, in oklahoma communities have started planning with business groups, agricultural interests, and the Energy Sector on the local level to develop Regional Water action plans to resolve their mutual water problems. The foundation of the water action plan model demonstrates that water as the key element in state and local economies, it focuses on unifying and forcing stakeholders to develop near, short, and longterm Regional Strategies to maximize reliability and diversify the supply of water. The severe Drought Conditions oklahoma encountered forces us to identify new sources of groundwater and further develop our existing underWater Supplies to address our overreliance on surface water to build infrastructure and pipelines to reliable underused Water Resources. Building new wells, and weve tried it all. City planning and Regional Planning has been the most efficient way of preparing to address any water supply problems. But there are supportive roles for state and the federal government to assist our communities, and there are roles for the corporate citizens as well. For example, one area in oklahoma, hardest hit by the drought, is the city of enid, oklahoma. One innovative example by the Coke Industries is their nitrogen plant, one of the largest fertilizer production plants in north america, uses the city of enids treated wastewater for implant cooling water. Eventually this reuse project will free up almost 5 million gallons of water each day. Thats almost 1 2 of enids total current usage. The federal government can have a role to play in assisting the regional infrastructure planning among states. An example of that are the chloride control actions on the red river between oklahoma and texas. These projects were specifically authorized by congress, dating back to 1966, with chloride control studies beginning at the red river as early as 1959. Chloride control actions in oklahoma and texas has and will provide new drinking Water Supplies, increased irrigation and improved downstream water quality. In fact, mr. Dalton and i are currently working with the Tulsa District Office to develop a general reevaluation and review and record a decision for the elm fork chloride