Complain about a product or service

Groups Skewer Bush Pick for Safety Agency

Industry Lobbyist Michael Baroody the Wrong Person for the Nation's Top Consumer Safety Job

April 26, 2007

• Consumers Cautioned About Dangerous Toys • Soon-To-Be-Banned Plastic Toys Flooding the Market • Safety Agency Warns of Safety Hazards in Cribs • Bush Signs Consumer Safety Bill • Congress Passes Consumer Safety Bill, Bush Promises to Sign It • Consumer Safety Bill Clears Key Hurdle • Consumer Advocates Blame Lobbyists for Delays in New Toy Safety Rules • Congress Inches Towards New Consumer Safety Bill • Congress Reaches Agreement on Parts of Consumer Safety Bill • Consumers Press Congress to Pass Strong Product Safety Bill • Safety Agency Waits 16 Months to Recall Lead-Laden Key Chains • Lawmakers Propose Bill To Prevent 'Stove Tipping' • Senate Passes Tough New Consumer Safety Bill • Infant Deaths in the Nursery Increasing • Sears Stove Tip-Over Case Illustrates Safety Agency's Shortcomings • Next Season's Toys: Technology Meets Hannah Montana • Toys Safer than Ever, Toy Makers Claim • Toy Industry Needs Import Safety Checklist • Toys Getting Safer, Safety Chief Claims • Plastic War Hits The Toy Industry • Feds Propose New Furniture Fire Rule • Safety Recalls a Sign of Success? • Congressional Leaders Send Message to Mattel • Another Industry Lobbyist To Head Safety Agency? • $30 Million Settlement in Thomas & Friends Suit • Consumer Protection Bills Spark Bitter Lobbying Battle • Time Running out for Consumer Safety Agency --- • More Consumer Safety News • Recall Notices

President Bush's nominee Michael Baroody is the wrong choice to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the nation's top consumer product safety agency, a coalition of consumer groups warned today.

The organizations -- Center for Environmental Health, Center for Justice and Democracy, Consumer Federation of America, Consumers Union, Kids in Danger, Public Citizen, Saferparks and, U.S. PIRG -- released documents showing that Baroody has overseen efforts to weaken safety proposals pending before the Commission as a top executive at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and has failed to demonstrate a commitment to protecting the public from product safety hazards.

There are more than 27,000 deaths and 33 million injuries each year associated with consumer products under CPSC's jurisdiction.

President Bush announced Baroody's nomination to the chairmanship of the CPSC on March 1. Baroody is currently the executive vice president of NAM, where he has overseen efforts to dilute safety proposals pending before the Commission and to weaken the very agency he is now nominated to head.

"The CPSC Chairman should champion product safety and work to uphold the mission of the agency without predisposition or bias," said Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel with Consumer Federation of America.

"Baroody's record of advancing a public policy agenda that would weaken health and safety protections for consumers makes him ill-suited to lead a critical federal safety agency like the CPSC. It is difficult to believe that Baroody could suddenly reverse course and oppose initiatives that would harm consumers."

"Baroody is a poor choice to head an agency responsible for overseeing the safety of children's toys, clothing and nursery products. The well being of our kids is too important to turn it over to someone who has always taken the industry side where safety is concerned," said Sally Greenberg, Senior Product Safety Counsel for Consumers Union.

"Time and time again, faced with product safety and public health issues, Baroody has sided against consumers," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "His work has degraded safety and eroded hard-won public health protections."

NAM's Agenda

Baroody directs NAM's public policy agenda. NAM, with at least 14,000 corporate members, represents the nation's largest manufacturing firms on Capitol Hill, before the executive branch and in the courts.

Consumer groups could find no evidence that NAM or Baroody have ever advocated for stronger regulatory safeguards. While Baroody was leading NAM's advocacy efforts, he and NAM's CPSC Coalition pursued a number of anti-consumer activities:

• Opposed a CPSC proposal to improve safety standards for baby walkers. Instead, NAM blamed parents for improperly supervising their children;

• Opposed a petition from consumer organizations to improve the way the consumers find out about recalls of potentially dangerous children's products;

• Supported diluting guidelines companies used to determine whether they must report substantial product hazards; and

• Urged New York Governor George Pataki to veto legislation that mandated fire safe cigarettes.

"We are concerned that someone with Baroody's background will not be able to be the champion for safety that our children need," stated Nancy Cowles, Executive Director of Kids in Danger.

"Whether it is keeping dangerous children's products off the store shelves or getting them out of our homes and child care facilities after they have been recalled, we are looking for a CPSC Chairman who will put kids first."

"Michael Baroody's nomination is putting the fox in the henhouse and that's the wrong decision for America's safety," said Ed Mierzwinski, Consumer Program Director with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG).

CPSC's Mission

Created by Congress in 1972, the CPSC has the authority to set safety standards, require labeling, order recalls, ban products, collect death and injury data, inform the public about consumer product safety and contribute to the voluntary standards setting process.

It has at least 15,000 consumer products under its jurisdiction, including many of the products that are used by children -- including strollers, swings, cribs, high chairs, baby walkers and toys.

"The agency's work is highly technical, deals in life-and-death issues and, at times, sparks intense confrontations with manufacturers, stated Kathy Fackler of Saferparks.

"Nothing in Baroody's resume suggests he is qualified for this position. Chairmanship of this agency requires the ability to focus on the well-being of consumers rather than the economic growth of manufacturers. I do not believe that Baroody is the right choice to carry out that important role."

Since the 1980s, the agency has been slowly starved of staff and resources. While there has been an exponential increase in consumer products since its creation more than 30 years ago, CPSC's staff is projected to be cut to 401 full time employees (FTEs) this year -- which would be an all-time low and less than half than the number of people employed by the agency in the 1970s. Additionally, its budget measured in real dollars has plummeted.

"Revelations that the CPSC has been asleep at the wheel on issues like lead in children's lunchboxes show that we need renewed leadership at the agency," stated Alexa Engelman of the Center for Environmental Health, "Confirming Baroody, who has advocated to reduce consumer safety regulations for industry, would further weaken the Commission's ability to protect consumers."

"The American public, under law, must have a CPSC Chairman who has the expertise and commitment to put consumer protection and child safety first," the groups said. "We urge members of Congress to reject this inappropriate nomination."

Report Your Experience
If you've had a bad experience -- or a good one -- with a consumer product or service, we'd like to hear about it. All complaints are reviewed by class action attorneys and are considered for publication on our site. Knowledge is power! Help spread the word. File your consumer report now.

Back to the top |