Claire McCaskill

As the Chairman of the Subcommittee on Consumer Product Safety, I would certainly appreciate a glance at where the line falls.

I was interested in your testimony, Mr. Mohorovic, about the problem we have with imported products that are substandard.

I would appreciate understanding more why it would take as long as you are indicating, Mr. Kaye, that it will take on some of these.

Sometimes no decision is worse than almost any other alternative.

I realize I'm sitting in a glass house when I give you that ammunition but, nonetheless, I'd just say what I say to my children, 'Do what I say. Just do what I say. Don't pay any attention to what I do.'

If you will help us figure out what we have done to handcuff you, I'll see if I can help get the key and maybe take some of those handcuffs off.

Barge traffic in my state is very important to the health of our economy.

Is it possible that we could figure out a way to have that maintenance done during the months that they are not needed for the heaviest months of barge traffic?

Maybe it's time to figure out a different way to approach this.

I would work with you on this because it, you know, especially if you all are just doing what the corps tells you even though that might be outdated and inaccurate.

I hope the two nominees here today will help carry on the strides the CPSC has made in recent years.

It may be that it's helping get the voluntary standards, the fact that this is out there, and I understand the efficacy of that.

I was one of ten members of this committee that recently signed a letter, bipartisan letter, raising concerns about this open rulemaking.

I hope that you will help to reduce the unnecessary partisanship that has plagued the Commission in recent years.

It is coming from a deep commitment that many of us have to these families and to automobile safety in this great country of ours.

Well, I think we need to have the resources and the expertise at NHTSA to find these defects.

Is $35 million enough? I mean, is that really a deterrent to companies like General Motors or Toyota or Chrysler?

Safety must always be our top priority.

I would be very interested in that.

You have an enormous responsibility to get this right.

That worries me you didn't know.

The money is going other places in your agency.

Yes. Well, it is pretty important we figure that out.

We will be monitoring all those decisions.

Because if the specifications say that airbag deploys when power is off and we know these airbags are not deploying when power is off, then we have a much bigger problem.