THE DEMOCRATS CALL FOR THE ACTING CHAIRWOMAN OF THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION TO RESIGN
NANCY NORD, ACTING CHAIRWOMAN TURNS DOWN THE CONGRESSIONAL OFFER FOR ADDITIONAL FUNDS TO INSPECT PRODUCTS SUCH AS TOYS ARRIVING HERE FROM PLACES SUCH AS CHINA
AT PRESENT, NORD’S OFFICE HAS ONE (1) TESTER IN HER ENTIRE DEPARTMENT TO CHECK THE MILLIONS OF ITEMS ARRIVE HERE FROM ABROAD AND SHE TURNS DOWN FUNDS FOR ADDITIONAL PERSONNEL TO TESTS GOODS THAT AFFECT THE HEALTH OF OUR PEOPLE
Nord redefines the word stupid! I know she is a Bush appointment, but we should expect at little more intelligence than she has demonstrated to date.
Nord asked the U. S. Congress to reject legislation which was designed to strengthen agency’s testing and policing capacity of goods entering this country from overseas.
The issue became a major concern when thousands of toys manufactured in China were found to contain dangerous amounts of toxic lead which according to Wikipedia is a potent neurotoxin which accumulates in soft tissues and bone over time. 90% of children’s toys manufactured today come from China and apparently China does not inspect its products as potential carriers of this lethal material.
Everyone associated with Consumer Affairs are shaking their heads in disbelief that the head of an agency sworn to protect the public from dangerous goods entering this country should send to Congress a letter requesting that it not be given the authority nor the funds associated with it to make their agency for effective in doing its job.
According to an article from the New York Times News Service, “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.”
You will recall that this agency has been under severe criticism for its failure to discover thousands of contaminated products manufactured here and abroad.
Nord position reflects the Bush’s administration desire to deregulate companies in tune with their free market mentality. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been reduced to one (1) tester. One tester for the millions of products that cross into this country from ports all over the world where the products have never been examine, never been tested and never been scrutinized for any type of dangerous substances.
Bush has been attempting to castrate the power and authority of government agencies to do their assigned job of protecting the American people from potentially deadly poisons.
To add insult to injury, Tony Fratto, a member of the White House communications staff indicated that Bush’s top economics advisor, Allan Hubbard, “was preparing a letter to send to the Congress ‘that is probably even more forceful than Nord’s’”
Having said that, today, November 6, 2007, the president announced a new federal program to clamp down on companies bringing tainted toys, equipment and food products into the United States. And guess what agency will be one of the major enforcement arms of this new policy? You guessed, one headed by Nancy Nord who just appeared before Congress requesting that she not be give the extra funding provided by the Congress to inspect and enforce the U. S. safety standards so urgently demanded by the recent outbreak of toxic products coming into the country primarily from China, but also from other countries that does not have their products sufficiently policed.
What a marvelous turn around by the Bush Administration!
Maybe you can see why I await breathlessly for January, 2009. This nation cannot long endure another administration as oblivious to the needs of the common man as this one. If that one tester had not discovered the toxic lead in those toys from China, millions of American children would have been exposed to a deadly poison with the blessing of George W. Bush’s insane desire to deregulate the toy industry.
This bill would more than double the budget for Nord’s department over the next seven years and increasing staffing by 20%. While that is not an earthshaking increase it is a step in the right direction.
To add another insult to the already injured agency, it was reported by the Washington Post reported that Nord and her predecessor at the Consumer Product Safety Commission have been accused by an independent audit of taking approximately 30 trips paid for in full or in part by guess who?
You got it! The former chairman, Hal Stratton and the current chairperson, Nancy Nord have been feeding at the trough of the very clients their agency was sworn to regulate.
And to muddy the water even more those companies who were/are taking the heads of the regulatory agency Nord and Stratton) out for dining/and dancing were spending large sums of money on entertaining.
“A group of eight senators, including sponsors of the expansion legislation, said they will introduce an amendment that bans industry-paid travel by agency employees. "It shows an astonishing lack of judgment," Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., said of the travel. “
Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin, D-Ill., chairman of the appropriations subcommittee that oversees the CPSC budget, was more pointed. "I wish (Nord) would resign, and the White House would quickly replace her," he said.”
Several consumer groups and some lawmakers indicated that Stratton and Nord, both Bush appointees, grew too close to manufacturers at the expense of safety regulations.”
"Now we know why Nancy Nord opposes efforts to give the Consumer Product Safety Commission more resources," Rep. Rahm Emanuel, D-Ill., chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said Friday in a statement. "Who needs more resources when the industries you regulate will pay your expenses for you?"
The expenses involved om this investigation were not ignficant. “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, Md., whose only laboratories are in Asia.
“Consumer groups and lawmakers intensified their criticism of the CPSC this summer after several highly publicized recalls of Chinese-made toys that contained hazardous levels of lead. Critics have long charged 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.
The government’s travel policy prescribes that an employee of the Consumer Product Safety Commission may not receive money for travel form a “nonfederal source….if the payment/s ‘would cause a reasonable person…to question the integrity of agency programs or operations.”
While the expenses paid for by the industries they regulate, the expenses of both Nord and Stratton were approved by the agency’s legal counsel and its ethics representatives. Further, the Office of Government Ethics gave its stamp of approval. What we must be cognizant of, however, is that those holding those positions were appointees of the Bush Administration which over the past six years has proven itself time and time again to be ethically challenged.
However, those expenses when reviewed by several travel experts at the request of the Washington Post, found there to be a conflict of interest on the part of both Stratton and Nord.
Craig Holman, an expert in the law of government ethics for the Public Citizen, a not-for-profit consumer advocacy group had this to say, “This is a blatant violation of the ethics code.” Holman went on to say that the federal guidelines allow nonfederal groups to pay for trips, “…but not if you’re a private party with business pending before the agency.”
The Clinton Administration was significantly more conservative on this point. Under the leadership of Pam Gilbert they made a concerted effort to avoid even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
With all of the hullabaloo over the toxic lead found in toys made in China, the trip paid for by the Toy Industry in 2006 when Nancy Nord received a pre-paid railroad ticket, two nights in a hotel, meals and $51 for her parking bill at Union Station to be the guest of the American International Toy Fair in New York.
It is obvious, in the business of Consumer Product Safety and numerous other government agency, the Bush administration sees no conflict when the industries being regulated pay the expenses of those doing the regulating to meetings at resorts, oversees or anywhere when the regulated industries are convening.
Now back to the point. The Congress proposed that the budget for this agency be doubled in order for it to be able to do its regulatory job more efficiently for the safety of the American people. In the light of the dreadful oversight of the millions of toys presently being manufactured in China and the amount of deadly toxins discovered in those toys, one would think that Nord would overjoyed at the increase in her agency’s budget. However, it appears that Nord like Bush wants to keep the federal government out of the affairs of companies contributing generously to their political campaigns and those being supervised by the federal agencies.
Ethics is not the Bush Administration’s specialty. There has been more corruption in Washington in the last six years of any comparable time period in my memory.
The Boston Globe hit the nail squarely: "Acting Chairman Nord is totally wrongheaded in her approach. She's forgotten that it's the Consumer Product Safety Commission, not the Business Product Safety Commission..."
Nord should resign and the agency should take the money to have more than one tester on its staff if for no other reason than to give the impression it’s doing its job professionally and that our citizens are being kept safe from obvious danger.
3:39:43 PM 
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