Congress has given us the authority to set safety standards. We're merely restating our authority. We're the agency that sets standards. Our standards are not minimum standards.

We commend Ford for stepping up, being very cooperative and voluntarily recalling these vehicles, ... Our investigation is ongoing, and we intend to keep it open because we want to find the root cause of the failure and make sure that we've identified the totality of the problem.

It just doesn't make sense to us to address one safety problem and along the way create a new one.

We have no comment on it until we're ready to release it. It's still a fluid process at this point. We look forward to significant fuel savings without sacrificing safety or doing harm to the American economy.

The investigation will continue, ... We still need to determine the root cause of the problem.

We have not determined whether or not there is a defect in the first place.

We evaluate a particular problem and set a standard.

The results are remarkably similar that when you repeal a helmet law, you can expect an increase in fatalities and you can expect an increase in medical costs.