Congress Bails Out Consumer Safety Agency

CPSC Gets Six-Month Extension While New Chair is Sought

By James R. Hood
ConsumerAffairs.com

August 5, 2007

An amendment to an unrelated homeland security bill empowers the commission to meet, enact new rules and impose penalties -- something it hasn't been able to do since January 15. Federal law allows the agency to operate with only two commissioners for up to six months.

The agency has had only two commissioners since ex-Chairman Hal Stratton, a Bush appointee, bolted the job with little warning on July 15, 2006, to become a lobbyist with a D.C. law firm.

The Bush Administration nominated industry lobbyist Michael Baroody to replace Stratton but after he was lambasted by consumer advocates, Baroody withdrew. Bush has not named a new nominee.

The amendment, shepherded by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) returns the agency to its full powers, granting it an additional six months during which it can operate with two members. President Bush signed the bill containing the amendment Friday.

Pryor, chairman of the Senate subcommittee that oversees the agency, held hearings on the CPSC's declining fortunes in March and expressed dismay at what he had learned.

"This is an agency in distress," he said. Pryor and other Democrats in Congress are working to expand the agency's authority and give it a bigger budget, even though the CPSC's acting chair, Nancy Nord, has said it does not need more money.

"We are not necessarily better equipped with more employees," Nord told Pryor's subcommittee.

But the other sitting commissioner, Thomas Moore, a Democrat appointed by President Clinton, has said the budget shortfalls and lack of White House support are "slowly killing" the agency.

Moore says many employees are leaving while others are demoralized and taking second jobs. Equipment is old and outdated, he said.

“Two years of significant staffing cuts and other resource reductions have limited the Commission’s ability to carry out its mission and have left the agency at a point where it is now doing only what is absolutely necessary for it to do and little else,” Moore wrote in a letter outlining his hopes for revitalizing the agency.

Bush's most recent budget proposal increases the agency's funds by $880,000. But with standard inflation and rent increases, the CPSC was still forced to fire 19 employees, reducing its staff to 401 total.

The chronically underfunded agency still uses a 1950s missile-tracking site as its testing lab.

Despite its enfeebled state, the commission last week negotiated a recall of nearly 1 million Chinese-made toys with Mattel, the world's largest toymaker, because some of the toys were contaminated by lead-based paint.

Reauthorization

Democrats have discussed "reauthorizing" the agency – a lengthy legislative process that rewrites the agency's composition, powers and authority.

Moore, a Clinton appointee and former assistant law school dean, is clearly hoping that takes place.

“For the first time since I came to the Commission, over twelve years ago, I have the sense that real and important changes can be made to our statutes to give us new authorities and clearer direction in achieving our mission,” he wrote.

Members of Congress asked Moore and the agency's Chair, Nancy Nord, to submit proposals for reathorization. Because Nord is a Republican and Moore is a Democrat, it's likely the Democratic-controlled Congress will pay more heed to Moore's call for a stronger agency with stricter regulatory powers.

Moore's proposal could yield two particularly controversial changes.

Public Records

The first is a request that the agency's proceedings with manufacturers be available to the public. This could potentially include publishing unverified, uncensored consumer complaints. That practice would be similar to what ConsumerAffairs.com does now; it would also open a trove of complaints which consumers have filed with the agency over the years.

The complaints that taxpayers file are now kept secret from the public, a concession granted to manufacturers by a friendly Congress years ago. Although Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests can pry loose complaints about a specific company, there is no easy way for the public to read the information other consumers have submitted to a publicly-funded agency.

Private Web sites like ConsumerAffairs.com have filled a vital need by publishing consumers' complaints but they do so under constant harrassment and legal challenges. Many such sites have come and gone in the last decade and industry lobbyists and dirty trick artists are hard at work undermining those that remain in business.

Accountability

The second controversial change would hold companies more accountable for their defective products.

Currently, companies are shielded from most personal injury lawsuits as long as they follow the procedure for voluntarily recalling their unsafe product. But changes which will likely be added later in the legislative process could hold companies liable regardless, a source close to the proceedings said.

It's expected that manufacturers will vehemently oppose these changes along with the rest of Moore's proposals. Baroody's National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) is expected to lead the charge against the changes, although NAM spokesman Hank Cox said the organization would not have a comment until Monday.

This could present the interesting scenario of Baroody -- President Bush's failed choice to head the agency charged with protecting consumers -- leading a campaign to weaken or eliminate proposals that would strengthen the agency's ability to do so.

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