When McCain took the gavel of the Senate commerce committee in 1997, reports were mounting of children being killed by automobile air bags.
The previous year, USA Today, the nation's largest newspaper, had published 68 stories, editorials and op-ed pieces about problems with the devices.
Some of McCain's Republican colleagues blamed the children's deaths on federal rules that required air bags powerful enough to protect adults. Backed by automakers resistant to federal mandates, GOP lawmakers demanded the regulations be scrapped.
Instead, with consumer advocates at his side, McCain pushed the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to come up with new requirements to protect children and then applauded the additional regulation.
"This rule-making is a good step toward improving traffic safety," McCain said.
The same year he tackled air bags, McCain championed even more ambitious regulation of the tobacco industry. With cigarette makers in court and under fire for concealing information about the danger of their products, McCain hauled dozens of witnesses to his committee room.
A former smoker, he railed against cigarettes from his perch at the head of the horseshoe-shaped table and pledged to use federal law to rein in the industry.
After 10 hearings between July 1997 and March 1998, McCain pushed a 514-page bill that would have given the Food and Drug Administration extensive new powers to control the marketing and sale of tobacco products.
McCain struck at airlines in 1999, championing new regulations amid public outrage over news that passengers on a cramped Northwest Airlines jet had been trapped on the runway in Detroit for seven hours.
He sponsored legislation to crack down on automakers after reports that Ford had known for years about rollover problems with its SUVs.
"He understands that industry is not going to do certain things," said Public Citizen President Joan Claybrook, a leading consumer advocate who has worked with McCain on auto safety legislation.
McCain wanted to regulate when broadcasters could air violent programming and how boxing matches should be scored.
In one unusual bid to expand government authority, McCain introduced legislation in 2003 to control how broadcasters cover elections. Under McCain's proposal, broadcasters would have been required to air two hours a week of candidate- or issue-centered programming and to offer political candidates the lowest advertising rates.
