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News & Analysis | REG•WATCH Blog | Press Room
Wednesday, February 06, 2008
Bush Budget Ignores Consumer Safety Needs
Excerpts from OMB Watch article, "Product Safety Regulator Hobbled by Decades of Negligence":
CPSC's budget and staffing levels reached their peak in 1976, only the agency's fourth year in existence. During the final years of the Ford administration, throughout the Carter administration, and into the Reagan administration, CPSC faced budget cuts every fiscal year. The trend reversed in the final years of the George H.W. Bush administration, when the agency received a 17-percent inflation-adjusted increase — the largest increase in nearly two decades.
However, that good was quickly undone. In the first budget of his presidency, President Bill Clinton proposed a 15 percent cut for the agency.
Even though CPSC's budget increased in the late 1990s and under the watch of George W. Bush in the early 2000s, employment levels struggled to grow and, since FY 2004, have dropped sharply. From FY 1996, when the agency's budget reached its historical nadir, to FY 2007, the agency's budget grew 19 percent when adjusted for inflation. However, staffing levels did not follow a similar trend. For the same period, employment fell to 393 full-time employees from 469 full-time employees — a 16-percent drop.
As the number of toys in the marketplace has grown, so too has the number of toy-related injuries. CPSC estimates the number of toy-related injuries jumped from about 130,000 in 1996 to about 220,000 in 2006 — more than 600 injuries every day. Even when adjusted for population growth, the rate of toy-related injuries has increased significantly since the 1990s.
As the ATV industry has grown, ATV-related deaths have skyrocketed. From 1985 to 2004, four-wheel ATV use increased 17-fold, according to CPSC statistics. CPSC estimates show a steady rise in ATV-related deaths over the same 20-year period, from 55 in 1985 to 734 in 2004. The sharp rise in fatalities and similar trends in injury rates prove CPSC has made little or no progress in reducing the risks associated with ATVs, even when accounting for their proliferation.
The article is the second in a series titled Bankrupting Government: How a Decades-Long Campaign against Federal Spending Has Undermined Public Protections. Click here for previous articles and more information.
Read it here
Posted by Matt Madia
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