TAUZIN MEDIATING TIRE-LIABILITY LEGISLATION

How far will Congress go -- or will it go anywhere? -- to "criminalize" a manufacturer's failure to tell the public about defective tires and vehicles? In private negotiations late Friday, U.S. Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-Chackbay, was trying to tone down the answer to that explosive question.

It's explosive because government regulators have charged that defective Bridgestone/ Firestone tires have caused Ford Explorer SUVs to roll over, killing people. Some consumer groups and Congress members also charge that the SUVs are inherently unstable. Both companies deny that they knowingly sold defective products or that they were deliberately slow in reporting problems to government regulators.

A Tauzin-chaired subcommittee has recommended a tire/vehicle safety bill. That bill, revised somewhat by the full House Commerce Committee, may come to the House floor this week.

The Tauzin bill does beef up the powers of federal highway safety regulators, and it does provide criminal penalties -- fines and the possibility of jail -- for tire and vehicle manufacturers who cover up defective products.

However, the Tauzin bill also has some liability escape-hatches for executives who belatedly cooperate with government investigators.

This is "the only way to protect whistleblowers" or to persuade executives to quickly disclose information once a federal investigation is underway, says a Tauzin aide.

A tougher bill by Sen. John McCain, R-Arizona, passed the Senate Commerce Committee two weeks ago, but it immediately hit a wall in the Senate where several of McCain's fellow Republicans blocked its consideration. The obstructionists either represent car and tire-making states, or they're conservatives who philosophically oppose both the expansion of federal regulations and the "blurring of civil and criminal law."

That phrase was spoken Friday by U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Ala., as he blocked a procedural motion by McCain that would have nudged McCain's tire/vehicle bill toward a Senate vote. Sessions' public statement was an exception. Most senators who've put "holds" on the McCain bill have done so in secret, as Senate rules allow them to do.

A red-faced McCain accused Sessions of condoning highway deaths. "I hope he has an opportunity to talk to the relatives of those who have been killed and those who will be killed... by our failure to act," McCain said.

Almost immediately after McCain's flare-up, Tauzin appeared on the Senate floor. Tauzin was trying to mediate an agreement on procedure or a compromise on substance, according to his staff. But there was no obvious agreement before the Senate closed shop for the weekend.