Return to Transcripts main page

American Morning

Senators John McCain and John Edwards Discuss Battle Over Consumer Product Safety Commission Nominee

Aired July 25, 2001 - 09:09   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
STEPHEN FRAZIER, CNN ANCHOR: To Washington now, where critics say she often blames consumers instead of products and advocates personal responsibility. A hearing gets under way this hour on the nomination of Mary Sheila Gall to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Details on this important posting now from CNN national correspondent Eileen O'Connor on Capitol Hill -- Eileen, good morning.

EILEEN O'CONNOR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Stephen.

Well, critics say that it was Mary Sheila Gall's vote against restricting these items, baby bath seats, that shows the crux of her argument. She actually noted that there are warning labels on these seats saying that parents should not leave children unattended and that that was where most of the accidents occurred, when they did that.

Critics say she's too quick to blame the parents and not the products, and is biased towards industry.

With me is Senator John McCain, Republican from Arizona, on the Commerce Committee, and Senator John Edwards, a Democrat from North Carolina.

SEN. JOHN EDWARDS (D), NORTH CAROLINA: Nice to see you.

O'CONNOR: Can I begin with you?

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: Sure.

O'CONNOR: Thanks for joining us. Senator, is this an ideological debate between personal responsibility and government responsibility?

MCCAIN: I think to some degree it is a difference in philosophy about how you address these issues, but I also think it's important to note in this debate that Ms. Gall's served for seven years and was then renominated by President Clinton and was unanimously approved by the Senate. The votes in question here, including on this issue, were taken before she was renominated by President Clinton.

One can't help but be a little curious as to why the issue wasn't raised at that time rather than at this particular time and a Democrat colleague of hers on the commission has strongly endorsed both her nomination for the chairmanship and her performance as a commissioner.

O'CONNOR: What do you say to that, Senator Edwards? Is, should consumers be worried if she's the chairman of this commission and not just a member of the commission?

EDWARDS: Well, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission has an enormous responsibility and that responsibility is to make sure products, including things like baby seats, are safe for young children and babies. These young children and babies can't protect themselves and it's not an adequate response to say well, the parents didn't do everything they should have done.

We need to make sure the parents do everything they can possibly do. We also need to make sure these products are as safe as they can possibly be for young children and babies who can't protect themselves.

Those kids depend on the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission to protect them and that's an enormous responsibility.

O'CONNOR: Senator...

MCCAIN: And her Democrat colleague on the commission feels that she should be entrusted with that responsibility, as well. But I hope that we could understand also that in most cases, the president of the United States -- and I felt this way when President Clinton was president -- should have the right to choose members of his team and people he feels can best employ his philosophy. And that's why I voted for many Clinton nominees who I may not have agreed with philosophically.

O'CONNOR: And what do you say to that? Is that a, is this a litmus test of how the now Democratically controlled Senate is going to deal with Bush nominees and that you're going to fight them on ideological grounds?

EDWARDS: No, absolutely not. In fact, I think John's right. I think we should show deference to the president with respect to his nominees. This is a very -- and I myself haven't decided what to do about this particular nominee. I think there are very serious questions, though, that she has to answer. She has a fairly consistent record when kids are hurt by products, babies are hurt by products, of saying the parents are responsible and there was nothing that could be done to make the product safer.

The problem is the head of, the chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission has a responsibility to parents, to families, to kids all over this country and if she doesn't adequately fulfill that responsibility, there's no one else to do it. So she has a huge and important responsibility.

O'CONNOR: You know, this is often a critic -- a criticism of some of the nominees from the Bush administration, that they are biased towards industry, perhaps beholden to industry, perhaps because of campaign contributions, especially regulatory agencies.

MCCAIN: Well, I would be...

O'CONNOR: You're a hand at this.

MCCAIN: I would be a last one to rebut that charge, in some cases. In this particular case she's been a member of the commission since 1992 so she has not had anything to do with any political contributions or activities. And finally, could I just mention, there is a difference in philosophy between Republicans and Democrats and that is the role of government. We do believe that voluntary compliance, we, if properly implemented, is a better way than regulatory requirements. And obviously Ms. Gall leans towards voluntary compliance as well.

Has she done everything right? I don't know. I can't defend her entire record. I haven't paid that close attention to it. But everything that I know, including the testimony of her Democrat colleague, is she's done a good job.

O'CONNOR: Senator Edwards, what about that question? Do you think this bias towards industry is driven, perhaps, by dollars from industry?

EDWARDS: Oh, I don't have any way of knowing that. What I do know is that in the case of Ms. Gall, she has a fairly consistent voting pattern and that pattern has been when a serious question is raised about the safety of things like baby bath seats that her response is to say well, there was nothing more that could have been done, the product couldn't have been safer, the parents are responsible, basically doing everything except what she's responsible for doing, which is to make sure these products are as safe as they reasonably can be for consumers, for parents, for young kids.

That's the concern and I think those are the questions that we need to address to her in the hearing today.

O'CONNOR: Thank you, Senators, for joining us.

MCCAIN: Thank you.

O'CONNOR: And those are the questions that will be addressed in the hearing, which is going to be held about a half an hour from now. Back to you in Atlanta.

FRAZIER: Eileen, Senators, thank you.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com