Posted by D. Cupples | Today's Washington Post reports:
"The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission [Nancy Nord] and her predecessor [Hal Stratton] have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. ...
"The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. The airfares, hotels and meals totaled nearly $60,000, and the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C....
"Critics have long charged that the agency has become too close to regulated industries, opting for 'voluntary' standards and repeatedly choosing not to take legal action against businesses that refuse to recall dangerous products."
Is it any wonder that our toothpaste and toys seem to have posed safety threats? So much for relying on "voluntary" standards -- which is like leaving a sweet-toothed child alone with the key to the candy cabinet and saying, "Don't spoil your dinner."
During the Clinton Administration, CSPC chairman Ann Brown did not travel at industry's expense.
Update: Crooks & Liars (via Memeorandum) reports that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is calling for Nord to resign.
Former CSPC chairman Hall Stratton defended industry-paid trips, saying:
"My view was we needed to engage industries and not only tell them what we expected but also to learn what they were thinking....You can't do that sitting in the ivory tower at CPSC." (WaPo)
Are exotic locations or upscale golf resorts the only forums at which CSPC officials can exchange information with industry representatives? Would it have been impossible to post CSPC standards on the Internet or hold conferences in Washington, D.C. -- so that busy commissioners didn't have to travel?
Current acting-chairman Nancy Nord was nominated by President Bush to be a CPSC commissioner for a term that expires in 2012. She was confirmed by the Senate in 2005 (CPSC website). According to the Washignton Post, Nord was a lawyer for Eastman Kodak before President Bush appointed her to the CPSC. Stratton had led New Mexico's "Lawyers for Bush" in 2000 before his appointment to the CPSC.
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