At a July 17 congressional hearing investigating General Motors’ failure to recall millions of defective cars for more than a decade, senators ripped into the automaker, calling for an expansion of the victim compensation program and for the firing of the company’s top lawyer.

The subcommittee chair, Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri), set the tone with her opening remarks, excoriating GM’s legal culture in general, and the performance of General Counsel Michael Millikin in particular.

“I don’t get how you and Lucy Clark Dougherty still have your jobs,” McCaskill said to Millikin referring to GM’s general counsel for North America, according to Bloomberg. “This is either gross negligence or gross incompetence on the part of a lawyer.”

Unlike in previous appearances before congressional committees, GM CEO Mary Barra remained relatively defiant, the New York Times reports. She refused to concede to Sen. McCaskill that her attorneys had failed at their jobs and should be fired.

“I respectfully disagree,” said Barra. “I need the right team, and Mike Millikin is a man of incredibly high integrity.”

According to Bloomberg, Barra additionally rebuffed senators’ suggestions that the company’s victim compensation program be expanded, citing “very different facts.”

The hearing came on the heels of a New York Times report uncovering for the first time documents that allegedly show GM deliberately obscured its knowledge of a deadly ignition switch defect in its interactions with federal safety regulators.

“I consider it a cover-up when a manufacturer does not respond fully and accurately to NHTSA about what it knows about deaths in its vehicles,” said Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-California), according to the Seattle Times. “This wasn’t some casual memo.”

The faulty ignition switches have been tied to at least 13 deaths and 54 accidents, the New York Times reports.