Motor Vehicle Safety Act of 2010
Latest action. By Senator Rockefeller from Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation filed written report. Report No. 111-381.
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 Council for Vehicle Electronics, Vehicle Software, and Emerging Technologies to build, integrate, and aggregate NHTSA's expertise in passenger motor vehicle electronics and other new and emerging technologies; and (2) an honors recruitment program for engineering students, computer science students, and other students interested in vehicle safety to train with engineers and other safety officials for careers in vehicle safety.
Requires the Council to: (1) implement the NHTSA Plastic and Composite Intensive Vehicle Safety Roadmap to ensure that inclusion of emerging lightweight plastic and composite technologies in motor vehicles to increase fuel efficiency, lower emissions, and meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards enhances passenger motor vehicle safety; and (2) assess emerging safety technologies in passenger motor vehicles in consultation with affected stakeholders.
(Sec. 102) Requires the Secretary to initiate a rulemaking to prescribe a federal motor vehicle safety standard to: (1) mitigate unintended acceleration in passenger motor vehicles (excluding motorcycles, low speed vehicles, or trailers) through a brake override system; (2) consider prescribing a standard that would mitigate potential obstruction of pedal movement, taking into account various pedal mounting configurations and minimum clearances for passenger motor vehicle foot pedals; (3) require electronic systems in passenger motor vehicles to meet minimum performance requirements; (4) consider prescribing standards for the operation of passenger motor vehicles with push-button ignition systems, particularly in an emergency situation when the vehicle is in motion; and (5) consider amending a specified standard to improve the recognition of gear selector positions for drivers.
(Sec. 107) Directs the Secretary to modify federal motor vehicle safety standards to require new passenger motor vehicles sold in the United States in model year 2015 to be equipped with an event data recorder (EDR) that records vehicle operational data that can be stored and accessed for retrieval and analysis.
The summary continues for 22 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 Senate with amendment(s)" stage on November 29, 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 December 21, 2010: By Senator Rockefeller from Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation filed written report. Report No. 111-381.
- Clearing the committees it was referred to, and being scheduled for a floor vote
- Passage by the Senate
- Passage by the House
- 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?
JAY ROCKEFELLER (D-WV) introduced it on May 4, 2010, and 9 members have since signed on as cosponsors.
They come from both major parties: 8 Democrats, 1 Republican.
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 4, 2010, 5973 days ago. The most recent recorded action was 5742 days ago, on December 21, 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
- SenateIn committee, no floor vote yet
- HouseAwaits Senate passage
- PresidentAwaits both chambers