A lawyer who has specialized in highway safety issues on Capitol Hill is now poised to head up the federal highway safety agency.
President Barack Obama will nominate David Strickland as administrator of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the White House said late Friday. Strickland has been on the Democratic staff of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation since 2001.
As senior counsel for the consumer protection subcommittee, Strickland is the lead staff person helping senators to oversee the highway safety administration, the Federal Trade Commission, and the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the White House said. Mothers Against Drunk Driving named him Congressional Staffer of the Year in 2004.
According to The Almanac of the Unelected, Strickland also helped write legislation on fuel efficiency standards, including a 2007 law that requires a 40 percent increase in the fuel economy for passenger cars and light trucks. He did not immediately return a call today requesting comment.
Strickland was two years behind Obama at Harvard Law School. He was an associate at what was then Wiley, Rein & Fielding from 1993 to 1996. He served as associate director of the Association of Trial Lawyers of America from 1996 to 2001, and registered as a lobbyist for the group for at least some of that time.
Congrats to David Strickland! I hope he can help twice as much as he already has in the past.
Posted by: LawDude | December 07, 2009 at 04:32 PM