1.   Both houses of Congress overwhelmingly approved a bill Wednesday that would stiffen civil and criminal penalties for failing to report defects in cars and tires.

2.   Brown has been increasing the fines against companies for failing to report such defects.

3.   Mitsubishi also faces a possible criminal prosecution for failing to report defects to the government.

4.   The bill would also raise penalties for failing to report defects.

5.   Federal law requires manufacturers to immediately report product defects to the safety commission.

6.   No major defect has been reported to date.

7.   However, Armitt told a news conference Saturday that the points system had been checked only a day before the crash but no defects were reported.