Congress = Clueless? Reactionary? Complicit?

"If you look at the entire market size and fleet size of Toyota, I think they were the largest fleet during that time period as well. If you look at it on a per capita basis, I think our investigators and the data shows that while they had more sudden acceleration incidents, their actual comparison to the rest of the fleet was actually unremarkable. They had the same percentage of sudden acceleration issues as other manufacturers. They just had more of them because they have more cars."

- NHTSA Administrator David Strickland, during questioning from Senator Tom Udall (D-NM).

To which Senator Daniel Inouye (D-HI) responded,

“I think we should be honest with ourselves, if it
is an industry problem, we should hear from the industry, not just from Toyota”.

So, who in Congress knew this and when did they know it? Which other automakers knew what and when?