You mr. Valukas and your team have compiled a report about serious internal shortcomin kuc that General Motors has contributed to the companys failure to report a safety defect in the chevrolet cobalt. I know that mrs. Barra serves with grave concern about the report finding, and i look to her and the gm leadership for establishing more responsible and communicated clufs in gm. We all recognize your report is not an end to the investigation. It does include a number of comments on recommendations which i feel gm should commit to implementing in full. My questions to mrs. Barra today will require simple yes or no answers. Now, to mrs. Barra. We have learned that cobalts ignition switch was redesigned, but it was not given a new part number. This obfuscated the companys certainly investigation. And contributed to a delay in defects and subsequent recalls. Mr. Valukas suggests in his report that gm adopt procedures that include a specific protocol for reviewing authorizations of added spe
Never be brought into the public square. Culturally we value the role of religion in public life stipulated. So the big difference, of course, is do we respect the right of everyone, irrespective of faith, including those who have no faith, those who are athei atheists, who are unbelievers, to follow their consciences precisely in matters of faith . We believe in that very strongly. We did from the beginning in the United States. Its written into our constitution. Even before we had a first amendment, our constitution has a prohibition of religious tests for public offices. Anybody of any faith can hold any office under the United States. And we have committed ourselves, as have many other nations, including iran, to International Human rights standards with respect to religious freedom. So were really simply asking iran to live up to those standards. Were not saying disseven religion, thats not our claim. We understand you can have a different system from ours. Were just saying, respe
Right, weve got to get almaliki. My view, my experience and the experience of every one of the american ambassadors who succeeded me in iraq is only the americans can actually be there and broker a political reconciliation. It cant they cant do it themselves for a whole lot of reasons. No other country can do it. I think that secretary kerry ought to be in baghdad. He ought to go there and he ought to go there and show that we really mean it. That almaliki is going to have to broaden and in effect the americans have got to get act i have active on the ground. Thats how you do it, its called diplomacy. Should Nouri Al Maliki go . I dont take a position. This is a democratically elected Prime Minister. He actually won the election just a couple of months ago. I dont think i dont think Public Comments he made yesterday critical of al maliki strengthen our hand in trying to persuade them to do the right thin thing. I would like to see an official trying to talk with al maliki, the sunnis a
Constitution, we had states like connecticut that had established churches still. But they were not active in that way. So i guess this idea of sharia being so broad seems to me to be more than just about whatever religion you believe in, because there are millions and millions of people who are muslims who do not subscribe to the overall political ideology that comes with that. Yes, thats thats absolutely right. You can have an established religion. In the United States we prefer not to have that. We disestablished our churches in the states, i think the last ones died out in the 1830s. But britain has the Anglican Church, it has an established religion, but it is respectful of the rights of religious minorities. I lived in britain myself for five years lives a graduate student and as a visiting scholar. I was not a member of the established church but i was entirely free to practice my own religion. We wouldnt want to say to the british, you have an obligation under human rights to d
I now convene this hearing of the oversight and investigation subcommittee entitled the gm ignition switch recall investigation update. I thiank my colleagues and presenters for being here. Ms. Barra, when you were before this committee almost three months ago you could not answer many of the subcommittees questions about why it took General Motors years to figure out why the air bags in the cobalts, ions, hhrs were not deploying when they should have. It took gm years before finally issuing a safety recall. Now mr. Valucas has made public his report on the gm fiasco in which he concludes it doesnt appear to be a case of a coverup or a conspiracy. Instead, according to mr. Valukass report gms failure to recall faulty vehicles was a case of incompetence and neglect. Perhaps this report should have been subtitled dont assume malfeasance when incompetence will do. I still have questions about whether gm employees knowingly withheld information during previous liability lawsuits. Informati