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American Morning

Bush's Nominee to Head CPSC Rejected

Aired August 02, 2001 - 11:32   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.
DONNA KELLEY, CNN ANCHOR: President Bush went 500 in the Senate today. One nominee passed, another went down to defeat this morning.

And CNN's Jeanne Meserve is in Washington with details for us -- Jeanne.

JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donna, you're right, and there were plenty of harsh words following Mary Sheila Gall's defeat to chair Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Senate Conference Committee voted 12 to 11 to kill her nomination and refuse to send it to the Senate floor. Republican John McCain accused Democrats of conducting a smear campaign. The White House called the vote a real defeat for bipartisanship.

Gall ran into a buzzsaw of criticism at her confirmation hearing last week, Democrats accusing her of favoring corporate interests over consumer safety. Just yesterday, Senate Majority leader Tom Daschle suggested Gall was the wrong person for the job yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TOM DASCHLE (D-SD), MAJORITY LEADER: I have to say her positions on safety, specific especially to children, make her ability it seems to me to chair the commission an impossibility.

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MESERVE: Gall has been criticized for resisting recalls on certain products, like bunk beds, baby bath seats and flame-resistant pajamas for children, advocating instead greater parental responsibility, instead of she describes as the "nanny state." Gall has been on the job for 10 years, and is the only Republican on the three-member commission.

The current chairman, Ann Brown, commented a short time ago about Gall's defeat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANN BROWN, CSPC CHAIRMAN: I can tell you that the Commerce Committee, as we have just heard, has not approved my colleague, and is not going to send her name to the floor, so that we have heard. My main issue here is doing what I'm doing right now. I've got to keep our eye on our mission, and our mission is keep families and kids safe, and my eye is on that sparrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MESERVE: And the White House is still considering its next step for Consumer Product Safety Commission. Meanwhile, another President Bush's nominee is one step closer to confirmation. The Senate Judiciary Committee gave its approval to Robert Mueller to be the next director of the FBI. Donna, that now goes to the full Senate.

Back to you.

KELLEY: All right, Jeanne Meserve, thanks as usual.

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