Product safety

Pryor's bid to overhaul

consumer protection
agency is set for debate

The Legislative News-DailyfromCongressional Quarterly

Defense Allies Push GDP-Tied Funds

Democrats reject th e idea, but GOP sees it as a focus of spend ing debate

PULSE OF
CONGRESS

BY JOSH ROGIN, CQ STAFF WRITER

EDITED

Pentagon officials, with the support of

Republican lawmakers, are pushing a proposal to set a floor for military spending at 4
percent of gross domestic product.
Majority Democrats roundly reject
the idea as out of sync with the nation's
needs, and it is therefore not likely to
get much traction in Congress. But Re publicans are expected to use rhetorical
and parliamentary means in the coming
months to make the GDP-based floor a
refrain in the defense spending debate
for fiscal 2009 and beyond.
As entitlement spending puts more presJure on the budget, and the wars in Iraq

and Afghanistan wind down, military leaders and their congressional allies are concerned that competition for federal dollars
will grow.
'This is the only way we can stop the
inexorable slide of national defense," said
Rep. Trent Franks, R-Ariz., a proponent of
the requirement.
In December, Franks and Sen. Elizabeth
Dole, R-N.C., introduced a joint resolution
(H J Res 67, S J Res 26) that would require
the defense base budget to equal4 percent
ofGDP, at a minimum.
Democrats and budget experts criticize the idea as fiscally irresponsible and
Defense continued on page 33

McCain's View on Interrogation Carries Weight

BY CATHARINE RICHERT

CQ STAFF WRITER

In deciding whether
they will support interrogation limits in the
fiscal 2008 intelligence
authorization bill, moderate Republicans will
look to their front-running presidential candidate for guidance.
However, Sen. John
McCain, R-Ariz., has
not taken a leadership
role on the controversial provision, although McCain did not bring up the interrogation issue at a GOP policy luncheon
he has long denounced Tuesday, and there was no indication he has been lobbying colleagues on it.
and worked against
practices that he considers torture.
debate on the measure Wednesday mornLanguage in the conference report on the
ing. Democratic leaders are courting
1thorization bill (HR 2082) would require
moderate Republicans- such as Maine's
the CIA to follow the Army handbook on
Olympia J. Snowe and Susan Collins and
interrogation tactics. The provision would
Oregon's Gordon H . Smith - to boost
essentially outlaw waterboarding, among
their total to the required 60 votes.
other harsh measures .
"When the intelligence authorization
Senators are scheduled to vote to limit
Intelligence continued on page 32

Report on page program, p. 8

Today's Hill schedule, p. 34

&

Bv GREG McDoNALD LL!J.I 11 , '"'lJ

WITH A WEDDING on the Line, Could a Deal

On FISA Be Far Behind?

. Nothing is going to keep proud

Speaker Nancy Pelosi from her daughter's
Feb. 16 wedding in San Francisco.
Not even wrangling between the
House and Senate over an extension of
the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance
Act (PL ll0-55).
In fact, the wedding of Christine Pelosi
- a Democratic National Committee
member-to Peter Kaufman, son of movie director Philip Kaufman, might speed
accord on a final bill.
"It's my understanding that the
Speaker has one of her children being
married this weekend, so I don't think
she'll be spending a lot of time around
here," Senate Majority Leader Harry
Reid, D -Nev., observed Tuesday, perhaps signaling that some sort of agreement on FISA may be near.
The House plans to be in session Feb.
15, with final votes tentatively set for the
afternoon. Minority Whip Roy Blunt, RMo., suggested that if a final deal can't be
reached before the current FISA extension expires that day, the House should
stay in session into the weekend.
But nobody believes that will be necessary with the Speaker's attendance at
a wedding on the line.
-Edward Epstein
Pulse continued on page 11
Volume 44, Number 21

260414 MNPD HDDC G20

JOE KEENAN
SENATE PRESS GALLERY
S316 SENATE RADIO-TV GALLERY
WASHINGTON, DC 20510

Page32

Intelligence continued from page 1

conference report comes to the floor tomorrow, Republicans should join us to
support one standard of interrogation
-as outlined in the Army Field Manual
-for the entire government," said Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. "We
want to abide by the manual because it
works."
Some middle-of-the-road Republicans
said Tuesday that McCain's stance on interrogation practices has informed their
decision to support the legislation.
''I'm against torture," said Smith, who is
voting for cloture on the bill Wednesday.
"John's opinion on this matters a great deal
tome."
McCain joined his colleagues for their
weekly policy lunch Tuesday, but did
not bring up the torture provision. And
there was no indication that he has been
asking his colleagues to vote one way or
another.
GOP moderate Norm Coleman of Minnesota said he was tom because he was worried the provision is too broad. 'T m against
waterboarding, but I don't think the Army
manual is the way to do it," he said.
One of McCain's closest political allies in
the Senate, Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. , has
opposed efforts to apply the Army Field

Consumer continued from page 5

to eliminate the protection for information
reported to us" because the current system
encourages candor when firms believe they
have a product-safetyproblem.

State Powers
According to the Democratic aide, senators have agreed on the role state attorneys
general should play in assisting CPSC.
The original bill would allow state attorneys general more leverage to sue manufacturers of dangerous goods on behalf
of state residents. Negotiators have since
opted to require that attorneys general follow a federal standard before acting. That
is, a state can sue only if a product does not
meet CPSC standards.
The National Association of Manufacturers had argued that the original provision essentially would have formed 50
mini-CPSCs, leading to inconsistent enforcement of product safety regulations.
Consumer groups say the original pro-

CQToday, Wednesday, February 13,2008

Manual to the CIA.

"It would be a colossal mistake, "he said
in December. "''ve been fully briefed on
the current CIA program to interrogate
high-value targets. It is aggressive, effective, lawful and in compliance with our legal obligations. The Democratic provision
will destroy the CIA program."
The House adopted the conference
report in December. President Bush has
threatened to veto the measure if it includes the current interrogation language.
"If they want to get the bill vetoed, that's
a surefire way to do it," said Minority Whip
Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.

McCain Key in Past Efforts

ply with the prohibition, without Congress

having to mandate that it adopt Army guidance on interrogations.
A Democratic Senate aide said leadership could count on at least 55 votes for
cloture Wednesday, including Snowe. But
Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin said he
was concerned that a handful of key moderates would not go beyond McCain's 2005
language.
"It's a stretch to get 60 votes," said
Durbin, D-Ill.
If Democrats can get enough votes for
cloture, they could also defeat a procedural
move planned by Christopher S. Bond, RMo. , who said he would raise a point of order against the torture provision because it
was not included in the original bill.
The provision, written by Dianne
Feinstein, D-Calif. , was initially debated
and defeated by one vote in the Senate Intelligence Committee. But when Feinstein
removed language that would allow Bush to
waive the new mandate, conferees agreed
to include the language in the measure.
If cloture fails Wednesday, approval of
the conference report could be punted to
early March, the aide said. +

McCain's stance on interrogation tactics

is no secret. A former Vietnam War prisoner who was held in Hanoi and tortured
for five and half years, he has long fought to
tighten interrogation rules.
He was instrumental in including a provision in the 2005 Detainee Treatment Act
(PL 109-148) that requires all Defense Department agencies to use the Army Field
Manual in interrogations, but which did
not require the manual to be the rule for
other agencies, including the CIA.
McCain said at the time that the prohibition against cruelty was sufficiently clear
for the CIA to devise its own rules to com-

Tim Starks, Greg Vadala, Kathleen Hunter, Patrick Yoest and John M. Donnelly contributed to this story.

vision would have added another layer of

protection for the public. "Ideally we want
the attorney general to be another cop on
the beat," said Rachel Weintraub, product
safety director and senior counsel with the
Consumer Federation of America. She said
her group wants to see the state attorneys
general "really filling in the holes" by enforcing commission statutes and recalls.
Meanwhile, committee members are
working on a whistle blower provision. Pryor's bill would allow any worker who comes
forward with relevant information to get up
to 25 percent of the civil penalties collected
as a result of the violation: Aides said the
senators have not reached a compromise.
Krenik maintains that industry has found
no examples of personnel being fired for
providing information to authorities. Nord
has argued against it, as well.
"This sweeping new provision," Nord
wrote in October, "represents a colossal
and wholly unfamiliar new mission for the
CPSC." She added that "it would dramatically drain the limited resources of the com-

mission to the detriment of public safety."

The Senate bill is expected to propose
much harsher financial penalties against
manufacturers offaultyproducts. Currently,
such civil penalties are capped at $1.25 million. The House and Nord are backing an increase of up to $10 million. The bill calls for
a $100 million limit, but senators have been
negotiating and that figure likely will come
down to roughly $20 million, aides said.
The legislation has taken on new urgency
because the commission recently lost the
power to issue new rules for manufacturers and take legal action against violators.
Typically, three members are required for
the commission to operate. The chairman
resigned in the summer of 2006, leaving
the commission with only two members.
In August of2007, Congress temporaril
granted the agency permission to operat
without a three-commissioner quorum (PL
ll0-53), but that provision expired Feb. 2.
Both the House and Senate versions of the
bill would extend the commission's authority to operate without a quorum. +