Obama Nominates Buerkle as CPSC Commissioner

Ann Marie Buerkle is President Barack Obama’s newest nomination to sit on CPSC. A Republican, she is a former New York congresswoman who lost her seat in 2012. She was a a member of the House Tea Party Caucus and the Republican Study Committee. She sat on various subcommittees of the Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Government Reform, and Veterans Affairs committees. In 2011, Obama named her as a representative to the 66th UN General Assembly.

Prior to serving in Congress, she was an assistant attorney general for New York State from 1997 to 2009 and was in private practice from 1994 to 1997. She previously worked as a registered nurse. She has degrees from the St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing (1972), Le Moyne College (1977), and Syracuse University College of Law (1994).

If confirmed by the Senate, she would fill the slot vacated by Anne Northup (PSL, 10/29/12, p. 1), who recently joined Bracewell Giuliani’s Policy Resolution Group (PSL, 5/13/ 13, p. 6). Commissioner terms are for seven years but run continuously even if empty, so Buerkle would enter the slot running from 2011 to 2018 with an option to stay another year.

Commissioner Nancy Nord is serving her extra year and leaves in October. Last year, Obama nominated Marietta Robinson, a Democrat, to fill Thomas Moore’s former seat with a term until 2017. Robinson received her Senate hearing a year ago (PSL, 5/14/12, p. 1) and still awaits a confirmation vote. Speculation is that the Senate has been waiting to vote on a Republican and Democrat together.