Consumer Panel Nominee Shelved

The Senate Commerce Committee on Thursday voted against President Bush's choice to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission, dealing Mary Sheila Gall's nomination a potentially fatal blow.

However, the White House said it might try to salvage the nomination.

Gall, who had been assailed by Democrats as too pro-business in her votes as a member of the commission, was defeated in a party line vote of 12-11.

The White House is disappointed but not surprised by this first nomination setback for the president, reports CBS News White House Correspondent Peter Maer.

"Mary Gall did not loose today," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. "Bipartisanship lost today."

The White House conceded the president did not necessarily support all of her votes on product issues, although he viewed her as well-qualified for the job.

Fleischer said the president would consider ways to bring the nomination up for a full Senate vote. Democrats did not rush to appear cooperative.

"It is not likely that we will go to the floor with this nomination," said Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D.

At a hearing Thursday, Democrats alleged that on key votes – baby bath seats, baby walkers and wide rail bunk beds – Gall would not push manufacturers toward changes that would have saved lives.

"When we try to educate parents about placing their children in adult beds, you not only oppose it, you write a letter to the editor and you condemn the commission staff," said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif. at the Senate Commerce Committee hearing.

"Your reaction is going to be to first blame the consumer," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Gall defended her record, pointing out, for example, that 75 of 78 deaths in baby bath seats happened when adults left toddlers unattended.

"I believe that we need to take a look at our products, we also need to take a look at behavior," said Gall, who brushed off the accusation she is big business' best friend.

"I have voted with the majority 97 percent of the time in matters of enforcement," she said. "Clearly I think this is the record of someone committed to consumer protection."

Gall, 52, with her two children sitting behind her, addressed comments she made in a 1999 letter where she complained of the "profusion of proclamations issued by this agency on behalf of the federal nanny-state."

Gall said she was responding to warnings the agency had issued about behaviors including snowboarding and parents sleeping in the same bed with their infants.

The safety agency oversees about 15,000 types of products, ranging from infant high chairs to fire sprinklers. While it works with companies to recall dangerous products and develop voluntary safety standards, the commission also issues and enforces mandatory rules and product bans.

Gall does have defenders, including fellow safety commissioner Thomas Moore, a Democrat who has publicly supported her nomination.

Chicago-based Underwriters Laboratories, which provides safety certifications, and many industry groups and manufacturers also back Gall, who has often favored voluntary industry standards over government regulations.

Urging a vote against her, Consumers Union, the publisher of Consumer Reports, and several other advocacy groups point to the dozens of infants who have drowned in incidents linked to baby bath seats since Gall helped defeat a proposed ban on the product in 1994.

At the time, Gall said there wasn't enough evidence to support a ban and that the deaths were caused by the extreme neglect of adults who left the seated babies alone in water.

This year, however, Gall voted with the other commissioners to pursue more limited regulations to make the seats more stable.

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