Posted 5/1/2006 9:48 PM ET

By Vicky Markovitz, USA TODAY

Nancy Baker, 49, says nothing eases the pain of losing her 7-year-old daughter, who died on June 15, 2002, after a hot tub drain held her underwater. But she says fighting for safety regulations gives her hope.

"It makes it seem not in vain," says Baker, daughter-in-law of former secretary of State James Baker.

From January 1990 to August 2004, the Consumer Product Safety Commission collected 130 reports of someone's body or hair becoming trapped by a spa or pool drain that was filtering water, resulting in 27 deaths.

Baker's daughter, Virginia Graeme Baker, died at a pool party in McLean, Va., when she slipped unnoticed into the hot tub. "(Her sister) ran toward me with this look in her eyes and just screamed, 'Mommy! Mommy! Graeme is in the hot tub,' " Baker says. "I jumped in."

Baker pulled, but her daughter, who was on community swim and dive teams, didn't budge. Stuck to the drain like a hand sucked to the nozzle of a vacuum cleaner, she was fighting hundreds of pounds of pressure. It took two men to pull her out, and the force cracked the drain cover in half.

"I look back and think, 'Why I didn't watch her every second?' " Baker says.

From her tragedy, Baker hopes to bring about change. With the aid of Safe Kids Worldwide, Baker is backing legislation today by Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., that would give grants to states requiring certain pool and spa safety measures, such as fencing and safety release systems that sense when someone sticks to a drain.

Suzanne Barrows, spokeswoman for the Association of Pool and Spa Professionals, says the legislation is good "but doesn't go far enough." The association standards deal with "layers of protection" that include locking pool and spa covers.

A pool built to the association standards will be the safest, most energy-efficient and durable, says Mark Ross of the consumer safety agency.