Safety Chief Is Opposing More Money (Consumer Products)

[RamboLiberal]

Source: NY Times

The nation’s top official for consumer product safety has asked Congress in recent days to reject legislation intended to strengthen the agency, which polices thousands of consumer goods, from toys to tools.

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.

The measure is an effort to buttress an agency that has been under siege because of a raft of tainted and dangerous products manufactured both domestically and abroad. In the last two months alone, more than 13 million toys have been recalled after tests indicated lead levels that sometimes reached almost 200 times the safety limit.



Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/30/washington/30consumer.html?hp

[Froward69]

1. too much lead in Nords cornflakes!

and toys.

[katsy]

2. So...

where did all those recalled toys go to? Do they know?

Edited to add:

Repugs are going to turn this country into some surreal Mad Max movie reality.

[AndyTiedye]

3. Start By Cutting Her Salary Out of the Budget

Since she doesn't want to regulate consumer safety, seems like she is the place to start cutting.

[GodlessBiker]

18. Yes! She is such a shill for the industry. It's disgusting.

[gateley]

4. That's just insane. nt

[bleever]

5. Safety Chief is Opposing More Safety.

Just say it.

[badgervan]

6. Now There's a Loyal Bushie

.. Politics over safety. May she roast in hell for eternity.

[KeepItReal]

9. Roger that

where do they find these fools?

[w4rma]

15. They aren't fools. They are criminals. You can bet that she has been offered a very nice retirement

(read: legal bribe) from a corrupt company that wants to keep imported lead coated Chinese garbage to sell at a high mark-up, for her post-government career.

[0007]

16. Come to Midland Texas! n/t

[kas125]

7. This is just unbelievable

On second thought, no it's not. NOTHING they do would shock me anymore.

[rodeodance]

22. Unfortuately, they do shock me.

[emilyg]

8. I think I read this wrong. Didn't I?

Unbelievable.

[DRoseDARs]

10. As Sheila Broflovski of South Park would say, "Wha-wha-WHAT?!?!"

Loyal Bushie, indeed, but methinks her past of being a corporate toady long before coming to chair this commission plays a bigger role in explaining this.

[orleans]

11. then she's fucking crazy. CRAZY!

i saw a piece 60 minutes did on this agency (i think it was 60 minutes) and they had crap piled up all over a few counters & on the floor--crap they were "testing" or "looking over" and the entire agency was in a little fucking room.

she should be taken to the psych ward for evaluation

then fired for saying such stupid shit!

maybe for her to stay the queen bee is to be the ONLY bee.

[ClintonTyree]

12. More Reagan style deregulation....

Only Bush is taking it to a whole different level.

"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".

By all means, let's let the Corporations be their own watchdogs without any of those pesky government regulations getting in the way. These corporations would NEVER put profits above consumer safety, would they? :sarcasm:

There isn't ONE Democratic Presidential candidate that would even consider allowing this to happen (no, not even the dreaded Hillary). Our WORST candidate is head and shoulders above the BEST republic candidate.

The next year is going to be jam-packed with dumb shit like this in Bush's last ditch attempt to strangle the Federal government's regulatory duties. Giveaways to industry will proceed at a record pace in order to further what's left of his "compassionate conservative" agenda. :puke: This will only succeed in further burying any hopes of a republic pResident in '08.

This is just plain S-T-U-P-I-D, but what else would we expect from the W-O-R-S-T pResident ever? :grr:

[DetlefK]

13. What's the problem?

If she doesn't want to do her job properly, we just have to find somebody who will.

[tanyev]

17. Oh, she's doing exactly what GWB hired her to do.

[flordehinojos]

14. why should congress not cut the funding for consumer safety products...

after all... the bushe have a food taster to make sure bush doesn't get e-coli poisoning, or poisoning of any sort. they probably also have a tester for any of the products they use to make sure they won't get lead poisoning, fall through a crack in a mattress or whatever else ...


they are not concerned about your safety or mine. they are not concerned about your life or mine. they are not concerned about your health or mine. they want your money and mine in their pockets !!!

[Hugin]

19. This is so screwed up...

:crazy:

Gawd, I hope someday someway all this backwardness is straightened out.

[Beetwasher]

20. Because Everything Is Totally Safe Now!

She's the bestest ever at her job!

[mikeytherat]

21. She also feels banning lead from all toys is "not practical."

Ms. Nord, who before joining the agency had been a lawyer at Eastman Kodak and an official at the United States Chamber of Commerce, criticized the measure in letters sent late last week and on Monday afternoon to the Democratic leaders of the committee. She was critical, for instance, of a provision to ban lead from all toys, saying it was not practical. She said that the proposal to raise the potential penalty to $100 million “may have the undesired consequence of firms, as a precautionary measure, flooding the agency with virtually every consumer complaint and incident.” Her concern, she said, was that the increase in complaints would so overwhelm the commission that, “true safety issues would go unrecognized in the process.”

Montgomery Burns in human form, she is.




mikey_the_rat

[rodeodance]

23. ...is consistent with the broadly deregulatory approach of the Bush administration

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.

[rodeodance]

24. ......Bush have sought to reduce the role of regulation and government in the marketplace......

[rodeodance]

25. send to your Congresscritters!----

[Eugene]

26. AP: Pelosi Calls for CSPC Head's Resignation

Source: Associated Press

Pelosi Calls for CSPC Head's Resignation

Tuesday October 30, 2007 7:16 PM

By JESSE J. HOLLAND

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday
called for the resignation of the head of the Consumer
Product Safety Commission following the millions of recalls of
Chinese-made toys.

Nancy Nord, the agency's acting head, has been under fire in
Congress for opposing Democrats' legislation to expand her
agency's budget and work.

“Any commission chair who does not, in the face of the facts
that are so clear, say we don't need any more authority or any
more resources to do our job, does not understand the gravity
of the situation,” said Pelosi, who has been joined in her
call for Nord's resignation by other Democrats in the House and
Senate. “I call on the president of the United States to ask
for the resignation.”

Nord, in an Oct. 24 letter to the Senate Commerce Committee,
said a Democratic bill that would expand her agency “could have
the unintended consequence of hampering, rather than furthering,
consumer product safety.”

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-7036345,00.html

[Supersedeas]

27. whose side are they on?