Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010
Latest action. Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 307.
Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010 - Title I: Vehicle Electronics and Safety Standards - (Sec. 101) Directs the Secretary of Transportation (DOT), acting through the Administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), to establish within NHTSA: (1) a Center for Vehicle Electronics and Emerging Technologies to build, integrate, and aggregate NHTSA's expertise in vehicle electronics and other new and emerging technologies, coordinate all NHTSA vehicle safety agency components, and conduct research into the use of lightweight materials in vehicles; and (2) an honors recruitment program for engineering and other students interested in vehicle safety to train with engineers and other safety officials for careers in vehicle safety.
Authorizes the Secretary to provide stipends to honors recruitment program students. Requires the Secretary to develop a plan to target and recruit the top 10% of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics students attending 1890 Land Grant Institutions and colleges and universities that historically serve minorities.
(Sec. 102) Requires the Secretary to initiate rulemaking proceedings to prescribe or amend federal motor vehicle safety standards to: (1) mitigate unintended acceleration in passenger motor vehicles (excluding motorcycles, trailers, or low speed vehicles) through a brake override system; (2) require that at least one redundant mechanism be built into accelerator control systems, including electronic throttle control systems, to maintain vehicle control in the event of accelerator control system failures; (3) prevent potential obstruction of pedal movement by establishing minimum clearances for passenger motor vehicle foot pedals; (4) require electronic systems in passenger motor vehicles to meet minimum performance standards; (5) establish standards for the operation of passenger motor vehicles equipped with push-button ignition systems, particularly in emergency situations when the vehicle is in motion; and (6) improve the recognition of the gear selector positions for drivers, including the conspicuity of the neutral position.
(Sec. 108) Directs the Secretary to modify federal motor vehicle safety standards to require passenger motor vehicles sold in the United States in model year 2015 to be equipped with an event data recorder (EDR) that continuously records vehicle operational data that can be stored and accessed for retrieval and analysis.
The summary continues for 18 more paragraphs. Read it in full on Congress.gov
Written by analysts at the Congressional Research Service and published on Congress.gov, not by Civibrief. Summarized at the "Reported to House with amendment(s)" stage on July 14, 2010. It describes the bill, it is not the legal text.
Where is it in the process, and what happens next?
4 steps remain before this bill could become law.
The record's latest action, on July 14, 2010: Placed on the Union Calendar, Calendar No. 307.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the House
- Passage by the Senate
- The President's signature. If the President vetoes it, two-thirds of both chambers must vote to override.
How likely is it to become law?
Civibrief does not forecast outcomes and this page has no opinion about this one. What the record supports is a base rate, which is a fact about the whole pile, not a prediction about this measure.
In the 111th Congress (2009-10), 383 of the 10,778 bills and joint resolutions introduced became law, about 3.6 percent. That count covers every measure at every stage, including the many that never left committee.
This one is not there yet: 4 steps are still outstanding, listed above.
Has anyone actually voted on it?
No. No roll call in this Congress cites this measure. That is the ordinary outcome: most measures never reach a recorded floor vote, and a committee ends most of them simply by not acting.
A vote is not the only thing that happens to a measure. Hearings, markups, and referrals are all recorded actions, and none of them is a vote of the full chamber.
Who is behind it?
HENRY WAXMAN (D-CA) introduced it on May 25, 2010, and 4 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They are 4 Democrats.
Cosponsoring is a formal signature on the text. It is not a commitment to vote for the measure, it does not bind anyone's party, and a long list of cosponsors is a measure of attention rather than of prospects.
How long has it been in play?
It was introduced on May 25, 2010, 5952 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 5902 days ago, on July 14, 2010.
Measures do not carry over. Anything the 111th Congress has not finished by January 3, 2011 dies when the term ends, and has to be introduced again from the start in the next Congress.
Every answer above is assembled from this measure's own record on Congress.gov and from published counts of what Congress has passed before. Civibrief does not predict outcomes and takes no position on any measure.
Vote history
- HouseIn committee, no floor vote yet
- SenateAwaits House passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers