No Consumer Protection

The consumer has no protection under the Bush administration. The acting chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, appointed by the president, fights legislation to strengthen her agency and takes trips paid for by industry officials. A fine example of government corruption.

President Bush came into office promising relief for industry, which he claimed was overburdened by government regulations. Too often, however, that policy allows unscrupulous businesses to put workers and consumers in danger. That is especially true when a regulatory agency is steadily starved of resources, as is the Consumer Product Safety Commission, whose job is to ensure that the consumers are not maimed or killed by the goods they buy or use. In recent months, millions of toys have been recalled because of their brightly colored — and very toxic — lead paint.

Ms. Nord, who is supposed to be the consumers’ advocate, has more often echoed the views of manufacturers’ lobbyists. She has argued that voluntary compliance by business is the only way to promote safety when an agency as small as hers is charged with overseeing more than 15,000 products. She is right that self-policing by industry is crucial, but her agency lacks adequate resources: it has just one full-time toy tester. Remarkably, she has been resisting calls for it to get those resources.

The Senate bill that Ms. Nord opposed last week would authorize a drastic increase in spending on an agency that has suffered sharp budget cuts in recent years. It would put real teeth in the government’s regulatory system by increasing maximum fines from $1.85 million to $100 million. It would finally ban lead completely from all children’s products.

Perhaps most important, the bill would require the commission to make consumers’ complaints public almost immediately, as the National Transportation Safety Administration does for automobiles. The Consumer Product Safety Commission now keeps complaints and even results of internal investigations secret while industry has weeks or longer to respond. That might work for industry, but not for the consumer.

Ms. Nord’s poor performance has taken on a more troubling cast with the disclosure that she has been traveling on the industry’s dime. As The Washington Post reported last week, she and her predecessor, Hal Stratton, accepted “gift travel” from those with business before the commission. It is hard to believe the agency’s lax approach was not affected by trips to places like China, Spain and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.