NHSTA Nominee Makes Case for Confirmation

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icole Nason, President Bush’s nominee to lead the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, pledged to make the nation’s highways and roads safer for families while tackling issues like vehicle rollovers and teenage crashes, the Associated Press reported.

On fuel economy standards involving light trucks, for which the agency is considering a rulemaking, Nason told a Senate panel she would seek "the most efficient and safest rule possible."

Nason, who was Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta’s chief attorney, was nominated in January. (Click here for previous coverage.)

Nason helped shape the federal highway law approved by Congress last year that includes safety measures including requirements for stability standards to prevent rollovers and measures targeting drunken driving and seat-belt use, AP reported.

But Joan Claybrook, a former NHTSA administrator and now the president of Public Citizen, a consumer watchdog group, told AP that Nason was the administration’s point person in opposing safety measures and that she was concerned about Nason’s level of experience on regulatory matters.

A DOT spokesman called that criticism "premature and ill-informed," AP reported.

If confirmed by the Senate, Nason would succeed Jeffrey Runge, who departed last year to become chief medical officer at the Department of Homeland Security.