diff --git a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/SelectVariants.java b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/SelectVariants.java
index b6a8123a9..106227f99 100755
--- a/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/SelectVariants.java
+++ b/public/java/src/org/broadinstitute/sting/gatk/walkers/variantutils/SelectVariants.java
@@ -673,7 +673,8 @@ public class SelectVariants extends RodWalker<Integer, Integer> implements TreeR
 
         //defaults from CombineVariants
         VariantContextUtils.MultipleAllelesMergeType multipleAllelesMergeType = VariantContextUtils.MultipleAllelesMergeType.BY_TYPE;
-        List<String> priority = new ArrayList<String>(VCFUtils.getVCFHeadersFromRods(getToolkit()).keySet());
+        List<String> priority = new ArrayList<String>();
+        priority.add("input");
         VariantContextUtils.FilteredRecordMergeType filteredRecordsMergeType = VariantContextUtils.FilteredRecordMergeType.KEEP_IF_ANY_UNFILTERED;
         VariantContextUtils.GenotypeMergeType genotypeMergeOption = VariantContextUtils.GenotypeMergeType.PRIORITIZE;
         boolean printComplexMerges = false;