NELSON. Mr. President, Volkswagen has become part of the lexicon
of the American economy, American culture. Volkswagen Beetles, at the
time when I was growing up as a kid, were all a part of the America we
know and love. Now we find out that Volkswagen for years has been
purposely deceiving the American public--for that matter, their
customers around the world--on their diesel cars by deceptively telling
them what the mileage is on the cars. And oh, by the way, in the United
States, because they were supposedly getting great mileage, there was a
tax benefit to the purchasers of those vehicles.
What in the world is happening to the American automobile industry
and those foreign manufacturers that are selling automobiles here to
take advantage of the American automobile-
[[Page S6878]]
consuming public? It is an outrage that VW would take advantage of its
consumers by purposely deceiving them on their mileage on diesel
vehicles.
First there was General Motors. Over 100 people died as a result of a
defective ignition switch that General Motors did not tell us about,
and in the process just recently--last week--announced a fine of $900
million. Where are our U.S. regulatory agencies? What is the Obama
administration doing about this in its regulatory agencies? Why are
they not dropping the hammer on corporations and corporate executives
that are purposely deceiving the American people about faulty
automobile products that cause the loss of lives and property? It was
General Motors. Then it was Takata airbags, which are in a lot of
automobiles but especially in Hondas and Toyotas. We know that a number
of people have lost their lives, a number of people have been maimed,
and they are driving around with an airbag in the middle of the
steering wheel--which now there have been millions and millions of
recalls--and in the middle of that steering wheel is an explosive
grenade because it hasn't been replaced.
Today, Volkswagen admitted, over the course of the last half dozen
years, that they have deceived people on their diesel vehicles by
deceptively telling them what the gas mileage was. Has the corporate
culture in what is an automobile society shrunk so low that we can't be
upfront when our products are defective or when we are trying to gain
competitive advantage? I lay this not only on the corporate culture, I
lay it at the feet of the U.S. regulatory agencies that ought to be
doing their job and ought to be doing it in a forceful way. Then there
ought to be some prosecutions, and corporate executives who knew this
and have done it ought to be going to jail.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from New Jersey.
Criminal Justice Reform
Mr. BOOKER. Mr. President, in the coming days we know that we are
going to have an extraordinary visit. This is a historic occasion. We
are going to gather both Houses of Congress to hear from Pope Francis.
During his time in the United States, Pope Francis has chosen to do
something that I think is extraordinary--to visit with the imprisoned.
