WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. Senate panel will hold its first hearing on April 2 to probe how General Motors and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration handled recalls over the past decade of malfunctioning GM ignition switches, which are linked to 12 deaths.
The Senate's Commerce subcommittee on Consumer Protection, Product Safety and Insurance will hold the hearing one day after the House of Representatives' Energy and Commerce Committee holds a hearing on the same topic.
GM's chief executive, Mary Barra, and the NHTSA's acting director, David Friedman, are expected to testify at both hearings.
In February, GM announced it was recalling 1.6 million vehicles due to concerns that faulty ignition switches could unexpectedly shut off engines while operating and also make air bags inoperable in crashes.
Congress wants to know why it took GM and NHTSA so long to act since the problem first surfaced in 2001 and there were repeated warnings from consumers in following years.
Senator Claire McCaskill of Missouri, who chairs the Senate panel, announced the hearing, saying: "We have to make sure federal regulators have the tools and information they need to prevent life-threatening tragedies for consumers."
(Reporting by Richard Cowan; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Leslie Adler)
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