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Monday, September 17, 2007
President's Budget Toys with Consumer Safety
So if $22 billion isn't really that much, then why shouldn't Congress just give in to the president's stubbornness and limit discretionary spending to his $933 "top line?" Congress and all Americans should care because even though $22 billion is but a sliver of the whole federal budget, a fraction of that sliver can have an enormous impact on the safety and health of hundreds of thousands of children.
During testimony [Consumer Protection Safety Commission Chairman Nancy] Nord admits, disturbingly, that despite harsh criticisms of Chinese toy manufacturers and calls for crackdowns in 2004, a "significant amount" of children's jewelry the agency tested still contains lead, amending that, shortly thereafter, to "almost all of it". She also describes the testing facility as a 1950's-era missile testing site in Gaithersburg, Maryland, some of the buildings of which do not even meet code. Nord goes on to report how their lone product tester, a man named Bob, is overwhelmed (imagine that!) and can't reasonably be expected to test the countless thousands of toys and other products coming into the country every day.
From CPSC's budget request for FY 2008:
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (herein the CPSC or Commission) requests $63,250,000
for fiscal year 2008. This amount represents a net increase of $880,000 over the 2007 funding level.
Because of projected mandatory cost increases, our funded FTE staffing level will be 401, a decrease of
19 FTEs ["full time equivalents" or simply, "employees"].
I wonder if that 1.4% increase over last year's budget is enough to keep Bob on the payroll?
(via Deborah Newell Tornello [posting on Ezra Klein's blog])
Posted by Craig Jennings
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