Too Busy Flying To Check The Toys

Earlier this week, Nancy Nord, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, was begging Congress not to give her agency more money to conduct product safety tests. It's clear now that she was just trying to save the government a nickel or two. She clearly has all the money she needs from the industries she's supposed to regulate:

The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor 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. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

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.

Notable among the trips -- commonly described by officials as "gift travel" -- was an 11-day visit to China and Hong Kong in 2004 by Stratton, then chairman. The $11,000 trip was paid for by the American Fireworks Standards Laboratory, an industry group based in an office suite in Bethesda whose only laboratories are in Asia.

The CPSC says that at the time, the group had no pending regulatory requests. But since then the fireworks group has urged the commission to adopt its safety standards, an idea that is still pending, according to an organization newsletter.

This is e.coli conservatism - a government where the regulatory agencies have been co-opted by Big Business and serve to resist all efforts to do their work, in exchange for perks like "gift travel". Corporations need only make a small investment to reap rewards hundreds of times larger.

Sadly, I don't expect Nord's resignation.

Please Don't Allow Us To Do Our Jobs!

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is begging for less money and less staff. Welcome to George Bush's America.

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.

At this point, I don't think you can give her the money, as it certainly won't be put to good use - or any use.

What's sad is that this comes at a time when product safety is more necessary than ever. China is getting rid of all their excess lead in our toys, making sticky buns out of cardboard, toothpaste out of antifreeze, and the one regulatory agency that could at least provide a small firewall to this runaway poisoning of Americans doesn't want to do the job. Because actually doing their job might lessen some CEO's balance sheet by a few bucks. The Bush Administration has consistently resisted efforts to regulate products coming in from China. This Nancy Nord is a former US CHAMBER OF COMMERCE official.

This is what they call "drowning government in the bathtub." And furthermore, caveat emptor was never more needed. I'm bringing testing equipment the next time I go to the dollar store.