Long-time readers know that I have an odd sort of fascination with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It’s just one of those unsung agencies that does important work for the public — the CPSC is responsible for reviewing thousands of consumer products to see which, if any, pose a health risk and might need to be recalled. Like most of the government, the Bush gang has undermined the agency severely through cronyism and hackery.
Of course, given recent events — most notably, toys from China with lead “issues” — it seems safe to assume that the CPSC would be awfully busy, testing products and looking out for consumers. But as it turns out, Bush’s appointed chief of the CPSC wants less money, a smaller staff, and weaker rules for product safety.
The nation’s top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days to reject legislation intended to strengthen the agency, which polices thousands of consumer goods, from toys to tools.
On the eve of an important Senate committee meeting to consider the legislation, Nancy A. Nord, the acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has asked lawmakers in two letters not to approve the bulk of legislation that would increase the agency’s authority, double its budget and sharply increase its dwindling staff.
Ms. Nord opposes provisions that would increase the maximum penalties for safety violations and make it easier for the government to make public reports of faulty products, protect industry whistle-blowers and prosecute executives of companies that willfully violate laws.
A White House spokesperson said Nord didn’t coordinate her opposition with them, but nevertheless added that the Bush gang agrees with her conclusions. In fact, the president’s top economic adviser, Allan Hubbard, will reportedly oppose the consumer-safety measures “even more forceful[ly]” in a letter to Congress this week.
So, the president and his top official for consumer safety oppose measures that would improve protections on consumer safety — at a time when increased protections are sorely needed.
Sometimes I wonder if the administration is trying to look ridiculous, or if these guys have just stopped caring.
“It was remarkable to send a letter like that to a committee, when you’re in dire straits and you need increased funding and you’ve acknowledged that,” said Ellen Bloom, director of federal policy at Consumers Union.
The agency has suffered from a steady decline in its budget and staffing in recent years. Its staff numbers about 420, about half its size in the 1980s. It has only one full-time employee to test toys. And 15 inspectors are assigned to police all imports of consumer products under the agency’s supervision, a marketplace that last year was valued at $614 billion.
Through an agency spokesman, Ms. Nord declined to discuss her opposition to the legislation.
Of course she did.
If the Bush gang even pretended to put consumer safety above corporate interests, this wouldn’t even be a tough call. Over the summer, we learned the administration has resisted efforts to tighten rules for lead used in toys, bibs, jewelry and other children’s products, out of an apparent philosophical problem with government regulation. Naturally, then, when lawmakers seek to expand the CSPC’s authority, the same philosophical problem arises.
This isn’t new. Indeed, just look at how Bush has handled the CPSC. When Clinton was president, he appointed Ann Brown to chair the agency. It made sense — Brown had spent 20 years as a consumer advocate and served as vice president of the Consumer Federation of America, so she was a logical choice, who ended up doing a fine job on behalf of American consumers.
This is how a functional administration works — find capable, competent people to fill government posts, and the public will be well served. Then Bush was elected. He tapped Hal Stratton for the post.
A former state representative and attorney general in New Mexico, Hal Stratton never asked for [the CPSC] job, protecting American citizens from such dangers as lead-laced toy jewelry and flammable Halloween costumes. Instead, the former geology major who went on to co-chair the local Lawyers for Bush during the 2000 campaign initially wanted a job in the Interior Department. “That didn’t work out,” he told the Albuquerque Journal, “but I told them, ‘Don’t count me out’ … and they came up with this.” […]
[Now Stratton has] a track record: rare public hearings and a paucity of new safety regulations, as well as regular (often industry-sponsored) travels to such destinations as China, Costa Rica, Belgium, Spain, and Mexico. But at least Stratton won’t let personal bias influence him: Despite saying that he wouldn’t let his own daughters play with water yo-yos — rubber toys that are outlawed in several countries because of concerns that children could be strangled by them — he refused to ban them in the United States.
Stratton left his post in June 2006, giving Bush a second chance to find a qualified person to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Instead the president picked another hack: National Association of Manufacturers lobbyist Michael Baroody. When Baroody left, Bush picked Nord, a former official at the United States Chamber of Commerce, which isn’t exactly known for placing consumer-safety at the top of its priority list.
It’d be funny if it weren’t so ridiculous.