Yesterday, Reg•Watch blogged about how Nancy Pelosi and other Democrats are calling for the resignation of the acting-chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, Nancy Nord. Without Nord, CPSC would be unable to conduct formal business likely making consumer product problems worse for Americans, at least in the short term.

Calling for Nord's resignation is problematic for another reason too. The Democrats are now shifting attention to a personal political battle and away from steps Congress is taking to improve product safety.

Lost in the battle between Nord and the Democrats is news that the Senate Commerce Committee passed a proactive, bipartisan bill which would make sweeping positive changes at CPSC — the very bill that started the battle in the first place.

Yesterday afternoon, the committee approved with bipartisan support the CPSC Reform Act of 2007 (S. 2045). Among other things, the bill would:

• Dramatically increase the budget and staffing at CPSC;
• Require third-party testing and certification for children's products;
• Ban lead in children's products; and
• Enable CPSC to levy greater fines on delinquent manufacturers.

Until Nord began illogically opposing this legislation and Democrats began calling for her resignation, the debate over improving consumer product safety had been positive and constructive. The CPSC Reform Act of 2007 emerged in that climate.

CPSC officials recognized they could not adequately fulfill their mission with the resources at hand, and Congress recognized it had been somewhat negligent in pursuing policy to improve the situation. Industry groups and manufacturers also joined the call for more resources and regulatory authority at CPSC recognizing everyone benefits when product safety is assured.

Nord and Democrats should get back to a proactive debate if they intend to solve the problems of our product safety regulatory system.

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"

The current head of the CPSC is lobbying against legislation that would strengthen her agency, The New York Times reports:

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.

Nord's position is peculiar because, in a September Senate hearing, she recognized the depleted resources of CPSC and faulted Congress for neglecting the agency for so long. The Times insinuates Nord may be coordinating her efforts with the White House:

Ms. Nord's opposition to important elements of the legislation is consistent with the broadly deregulatory approach of the Bush administration over the last seven years. In a variety of areas, from antitrust to trucking and worker safety, officials appointed by President Bush have sought to reduce the role of regulation and government in the marketplace.

Tony Fratto, a White House spokesman, said that Ms. Nord had not coordinated her effort to kill the legislation with the White House. But he said that the administration shared many of her concerns.

Reg•Watch Update: "Politicking between Democrats and Nord Threatens CPSC"

Be sure to check out the latest issue of our biweekly newsletter, The Watcher. Regulatory policy articles this time:

Bush Administration Delays Import Safety Changes While Congress Debates Solutions

States Sue Bush Administration over New Children's Health Insurance Requirements

House Energy and Commerce Committee Proposes Climate Change Legislation Framework

Numerous product recalls in 2007, often involving items regulated by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, have been well-publicized. But as the Los Angeles Times reports today, the announcement of a recall is not the end of the story.

In a recent Senate hearing, Toys 'R' Us CEO Jerry Storch discussed his company's system for ensuring recalled products are not sold to consumers. The company uses bar codes to prevent potentially dangerous products from leaving its warehouses or from being purchased at registers.

But what about products that consumers have already purchased? Low public awareness is a major impediment to effective recalls, according to the LA Times. When consumers are aware of recalls, they may be more inclined to simply throw away defective products, rather than return them to the manufacturer.

In the article, CPSC spokesman Scott Wolfson is upfront about the difficulty: "We do a very good job of getting dangerous products off store shelves, but our greater challenge is to get dangerous products out of people's homes."

Yesterday, Congress took a step in the right direction. The House passed a bill (H.R. 1699) which would require manufacturers of "durable" children's products, e.g. cribs and high chairs, to include product registration cards. If consumers turn in these cards, they would receive recall notices in the mail should a problem with the product arise. The policy is modeled after the system currently in place for car seats.

Other advocates would prefer CPSC to develop a system closer to that of auto regulators:

Vehicle recall response rates are among the highest, at about 72% in recent years, said Eric Bolton, spokesman for the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"The rest of the consumer product system has never set up its own system and hasn't been required to do so," said Joan Claybrook, former head of the national traffic safety board and now president of the Public Citizen safety and consumer rights lobbying group in Washington. "The system itself is defective."

Lack of publicly available information is also an issue making it more difficult for advocates and concerned citizens to uncover problems:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission does not release statistics on the number of products returned by consumers. Reports submitted to a House subcommittee last month by 19 national retailers involved in lead-paint recalls revealed that only small percentages of items were being returned.

Today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced eight more product recalls of children's products. CPSC cites lead contamination as the reason for all eight.

Reg•Watch has been working on some back-of-the-envelope calculations on the number of children's product recalls involving lead contamination. So far this year, CPSC has announced 58 recalls accounting for more than 12 million individual products. (More than 11 million of the products — or about 92 percent — were manufactured in China.) These have all been voluntary recalls which CPSC normally negotiates with retailers.

In 2006, CPSC announced 17 recalls of children's products for lead contamination totaling less than three million individual products. That's about a 320 percent increase in recalled products from last year to this year...and we still have almost three months left.