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Tuesday, October 30, 2007

Politicking between Democrats and Nord Threatens CPSC

As Reg•Watch blogged this morning, CPSC Commissioner Nancy Nord is lobbying against a CPSC reform bill that would strengthen the agency's authority and increase its budget.

In light of Nord's lobbying, congressional Democrats, including Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, are calling for Nord's resignation, according to the Associated Press.

While Nord's resignation may allow Democrats to score some political points, it would actually make the situation worse for American consumers. Without Nord, two of the three commissioner posts at CPSC would be vacant. With only one commissioner, CPSC would not have the voting quorum necessary to conduct formal business. That would mean no mandatory recalls and no new regulations — including a regulation banning lead in toys which would be mandated if Congress passed the CPSC reform legislation in its current form.

The inability to conduct formal business would be particularly frustrating because CPSC just regained its voting quorum on August 3. When the former head of CPSC left in July 2006, under federal law, the agency was able to operate with a temporary quorum for six months. The temporary quorum expired in January. Fortunately, Sen. Mark Pryor (D-AR) included a provision in an unrelated bill which renewed the six month temporary quorum starting Aug. 3 when the bill was signed into law.

President Bush is certainly to blame for not filling the existing vacancy 13 months after it occurred; but Nord's resignation would only make matters worse. Bush could then go the remainder of his term and never fill the commission with new appointees and render CPSC useless. Based on seven years of anti-regulatory policy, a useless CPSC may be Bush's favorite kind. While Nord's position on the CPSC reform legislation is ridiculous, her ouster would be playing right into Bush's hands.

Reg•Watch Update:"Senate Panel Moves CPSC Reform Act"