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LEGISLATIVE HISTORY COLLECTION - SAMPLE DOCUMENTS

Documents Posted February 1, 2006

In 1976 the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee, chaired at that time by Rep. John Moss (D-CA), a vigorous consumer advocate, published an extensive analysis of government regulatory activities and the need for regulatory reform. It devoted much of the report to the work of consumer and health protection agencies, including the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Because the report is a model of responsible congressional oversight, including discussion and recommendation sections at the beginning and end, it is provided here in entirety. Its commentary on problems that NHTSA was encountering and in some cases engendering at that time is still highly relevant. The report is divided here into seven parts. Parts Two, Four, Five and Appendixes are particularly relevant.

CONTENTS

PART ONE - INTRO, SEC, FTC, EPA

PART TWO - NHTSA, CPSC, FCC, FDA

PART THREE - ICC, FPC

PART FOUR - ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION

PART FIVE - CONCLUSIONS, RECOMMENDATIONS

APPENDIXES

The documents described below, listed and summarized in chronological order, may be accessed in pdf format by clicking on the links highlighted in each summary. Additional documents in the Congressional collection will be made available for access on this website in the future. Watch this section for additions.

Documents posted January 9, 2006

In March of 1965, prompted by growing public concern over highway crash deaths and injuries, a series of hearings was initiated by a subcommittee of the Senate Government Operations Committee. The hearings came to be known as the "Ribicoff hearings", after the name of the subcommittee chairman, Sen. Abraham Ribicoff (D-Conn). The hearings continued through most of that year and the next. They painstakingly assembled a huge record of industry and government actions and failures that had contributed to highway crash trauma, and thus they laid the basis for subsequent statutory and regulatory action intended to substantially reduce motor vehicle hazards and the injuries they were causing.

Presented here are the five volumes of the Ribicoff hearings:

Federal Role in Traffic Safety, Part 1, March 22, 25 and 26, 1965

Federal Role in Traffic Safety, Part 2, July 13, 14, 15 and 21, 1965

Federal Role in Traffic Safety, Part 3, February 2, 3 and 10, 1966

Federal Role in Traffic Safety, Part 4, March 22, 1966

Federal Role in Traffic Safety, Appendix, December 1966



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