The Senate commerce committee today fast tracked the nomination of Inez Tenenbaum to lead the beleaguered Consumer Product Safety Commission, according to the staff of the Product Safety Letter. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), who chaired the hearing asked for senators’ questions by the end of the day rather than the usual time frame of a few weeks. (View the Web cast.)

During the hearing, Tenenbaum was asked about two of the biggest issues the agency is confronting: Implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and Chinese dry wall. Tenenbaum said she believes the key to clearing up much of the confusion about the CPSIA is to clarify the law and issue guidance. She also expressed a desire to apply “common sense” to the law, a phrase picked up and repeated numerous times by senators of both parties, according to the PSL team.

"If confirmed, I will make the implementation of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 my highest priority," she said in her prepared remarks. "I pledge to regularly inform this committee and Congress about our progress, and to work with you in an effort to meet the statutory deadlines and avoid unnecessary delays."

Tenenbaum served as South Carolina's State Superintendent of Education from 1998 to 2007, later becoming special counsel to the McNair Law Firm in the area of public school finance. In 2004, Tenenbaum ran as the Democratic candidate for the Senate seat of retiring Democrat Fritz Hollings, losing to Republican Jim DeMint. Previously she practiced health, environmental, and public-interest law with the firm Sinkler & Boyd.

"I believe that my work as a child advocate, an educator, an environmental lawyer, and a public servant has prepared me well to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission," she said. "And I am well aware that I would assume the chairmanship of an agency that is faced with challenges."

Tenenbaum appears to face little opposition.