Two Heads of Product Safety Agency (Nord and Stratton) Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups

Industries Paid for Top Regulators' Travel
Two Heads of Product Safety Agency Accepted Trips From Manufacturer Groups

By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, November 2, 2007; Page A01

The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate, according to internal records obtained by The Washington Post. Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards.

The records document nearly 30 trips since 2002 by the agency's acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, that were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers of products ranging from space heaters to disinfectants. 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 whose only laboratories are in Asia.

The CPSC says that at the time, the group had no pending regulatory requests. But since then the fireworks group has urged the commission to adopt its safety standards, an idea that is still pending, according to an organization newsletter.

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 that 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.

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/11/01/AR2007110102732.html?hpid=topnews

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http://commonsense.ourfuture.org/surrender_nancy?tx=3

Surrender, Nancy!

Submitted by Rick Perlstein on November 2, 2007 - 10:28am.

Yesterday I argued that Consumer Product Safety Commission acting chair Nancy Nord really should resign. Today, what can I add? That she really, really, really should resign.

Today's Washington Post. Page A1: "The chief of the Consumer Product Safety Commission and her predecessor have taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance, and children's furniture industries and others they regulate.... Some of the trips were sponsored by lobbying groups and lawyers representing the makers of products linked to consumer hazards."

I love the excuses. There was an $11,000 junket to China and Hong Kong by the "American Fireworkds Standards Laboratory" (a "laboratory" based in an office suite in Bethesda). The fireworks folks say it was entirely kosher, because "the group had not pending regulatory requests." But then they brag in their organization newsletter about their pending regulatory requests.

The contrast with the Clinton Administration is revealed to be stark: back in the days before E. coli conservatism ruled the White House, government consumer regulators paid for their trips out of government budgets.

I love this detail, too: "50 percent of the CPSC budget is used for children's products." Then why does the CPSC hire but a single tester for toys?

I love this one, too: Nancy Nord got a $2,000 trip to New Orleans to attend a meeting on "product litigation trends" before a group of corporate defense lawyers. It only makes sense. Before becoming the government official responsible for regulating the behavior corporate defense lawyers, she was executive director of the American Corporate Counsel Association.

President Bush, just give her a Medal of Freedom and be done with it already.