[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 144 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: October 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
ANN BROWN REVITALIZING CPSC
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HON. CARDISS COLLINS
of illinois
in the house of representatives
Wednesday, October 5, 1994
Mrs. COLLINS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, over the years, the Consumer
Product Safety Commission [CPSC] has unfortunately gained the
reputation of being ``the little agency that can't.'' But under the
leadership of Ann Brown, the Chairman appointed by President Bill
Clinton, the agency has been revitalizing itself. Chairman Brown's
efforts are detailed in the following column by Hobart Rowen, which
appeared in the Washington Post last Sunday, October 2:
[From the Washington Post, Oct. 2, 1994]
CPSC's Ann Brown Is Pragmatic, Persistent on Product Safety
(By Hobart Rowen)
When Ann Brown, chairman of the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, was a 12-year-old Washington schoolgirl in 1949,
she took her homework to Erlebachers', her parents' F Street
NW clothing store, instead of going directly home.
``I learned there how small business should work,'' Brown
told me last week. Her father, Jules Winkleman, would
demonstrate for his sales staff how to be as concerned in
dealing with a customer who brought in a return, as in making
the original sale.
``My father would play out the role of the customer. He
wanted to make sure his sales force understood that consumer
satisfaction came first,'' Brown recalled. And well ahead of
his time, Winkleman encouraged his daughter to think of a
business career. ``He told me a woman could go ahead and do
anything a man could do.''
It was an easy progression for Brown to become a consumer
activist by profession and--by her own evaluation--one who
was an aggressive advocate who viewed most business people as
too focused ``on short-term profits'' and not enough on
consumer needs or safety.
Now, at 57, in her first-ever government job, she finds
that ``times have changed and I have changed.'' She sees her
role as ``a regulator for the '90s,'' who can work with
industry groups for compromises that pay off. Business, too,
has changed, she believes, because ``many large and small
companies have had to update and upgrade their own missions
and strategic marketing plans.''
Brown has gotten across her message that however tough an
activist she was in her private incarnation, she has no
horns; rather, she portrays herself as a pragmatist willing
to work things out with private industry.
A case in point relates to drawstrings in the hood and neck
portions of children's garments, long a hazard for small
children. Yet, in 1993, 12 children were strangled and
another 27 were injured by such drawstrings, easily
replaceable by buttons, snaps or velcro. One of the first
things Brown did as chairman was to get the industry to
agree voluntarily to redesign 200 million garments to
eliminate this hazard by next year.
Industry leaders agree that safety in children's garments
must become a priority focus. Brown has started a national
award program for a company's commitment to safety first,
with the first coveted honor going to Procter & Gamble Co.
for developing safety caps for drugs that are both child-
resistant and easy for seniors to open.
For more than two decades, Brown had been a recognized
leader in lobbying for consumer safety and consumer rights.
From 1979 until this year, she was vice president of the
Consumer Federation of America. From 1983 to 1994 she had
also been chairman of Public Voice, a pro-consumer lobby
aimed at improving consumer health and nutrition. In
addition, from 1972 until joining the Clinton administration.
Brown headed consumer affairs for Americans for Democratic
Action.
In her Bethesda office, chock-full of consumer products--
notably children's toys and garments--that have been modified
to make them safe, Brown says: ``I'm not trying to be a cop.
I don't believe that you can regulate everything that moves,
or that you can make every product absolutely safe.'' But she
also knows that not even the most dedicated parents or most
conscientious consumers can always guarantee their children's
or their own safety.
As government agencies go, you could skip right over the
CPSC in the federal budget unless you were using a magnifying
glass. Before Bill Clinton appointed Brown in March 10, 1994
to chair the CPSC, it had become a moribund and almost
disowned backwater under presidents Reagan and Bush. David
Stockman, as director of the Office of Management and Budget,
wanted to junk it altogether, but never quite succeeded. It
dwindled under the Reagan-Bush years from 978 to 487
employees; Brown's budget for fiscal 1995 will be $41.3
million, down $1 million from 1994.
Occasionally, a startling event makes the headlines, as did
the recent untimely death of tennis star Vitas Gerulaitis of
carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater. CSPC has
accelerated its efforts to make carbon monoxide detectors as
common in homes as smoke detectors.
All told, more than 15,000 consumer products come under
CPSC's jurisdiction, excluding most forms of transportation
or workplace-related equipment. A rising concern is sports-
related injuries. For example, roller-blading accidents
zoomed from 38,000 in 1993 to an estimated 83,000 in 1994.
In a recent pep talk to employees, Brown recalled an old
Washington Post article that referred to the three-member
commission as ``the little agency that can't.'' Under her
guidance, Brown pledged, the agency will become ``the little
agency that could.''
``It's still a dangerous world out there,'' Brown says with
conviction. ``Unintentional injury is the leading cause of
death in the nation.'' One-fourth of those 96,000 deaths
annually are related to consumer products. With industry's
help, Brown intends to get that number down.
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