[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 169 (Friday, November 2, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S13722]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY

  Mr. BROWN. Madam President, I thank the Presiding Officer, the 
Senator from Minnesota, for the work she has done on the issue I will 
talk about today--consumer product safety.
  This year, our Nation has witnessed recall after recall after recall 
of contaminated products--toys, vitamins, pet food, tires, the list 
goes on and on. Our fundamentally flawed trade policy, mixed with an 
indifferent--or worse--consumer protection agency, has eroded nearly 40 
years of safety standards in our Nation. In the past, until the last 
few years, our safety standards assured parents they could trust that 
their children's toys were lead free.
  We are now trying to strengthen the Consumer Protection Safety 
Commission. I am a cosponsor of the legislation authored by Senator 
Pryor that will help strengthen that agency--the agency charged with 
keeping our families safe from contaminated products--whether it is 
toys or other products.
  Earlier this week, however, a New York Times story revealed that the 
CPSC Acting Chairwoman, Nancy Nord, is actively working against these 
improvements, lobbying Congress to kill this bill. That is shameful.
  This morning's Washington Post revealed that, in addition to fighting 
agency improvements, Chairwoman Nord has enjoyed trips across the 
country and around the world, paid for by the very toy companies she is 
responsible for regulating. That is outrageous.
  These were trips paid for by the toy industry, the industry that is 
now under scrutiny for cutting corners--cutting corners that earn big 
profits for industry CEOs and sends toxic toys into our children's 
bedrooms.
  Parents have the right to trust that their children's toys are safe. 
Every American has the right to trust that their Government is doing 
its job to keep us safe. Sadly, that does not appear to be the case 
with the CPSC.
  Now, Chairwoman Nord claims her agency simply doesn't have the 
resources to do the job right. She claims the legislation now working 
its way through Congress would overburden her agency. Why then, one 
must ask, did Chairwoman Nord fail to ask for more money when she met 
with the Appropriations Committee earlier this year? The 2008 budget 
she defended before Congress doesn't even account for inflation. It 
leaves this agency less well equipped to prevent harm to children and 
to the rest of us. She stood up before the House Financial Services 
Appropriations Subcommittee and defended this budget, never once 
asserting the need for additional resources.
  What better opportunity could Chairwoman Nord have had to improve her 
agency? What better opportunity could she have had to protect our 
families? But she failed.
  The CPSC budget is half what it was when it was created in the 
1970s--in the days when most toys and consumer products were made in 
this country. We imported last year $288 billion worth of products from 
China, tens of billions of dollars of products and toys from China and 
other countries that don't have a regulatory system or a Consumer 
Product Safety Commission or a system in place to protect consumers.
  During this time, the CPSC staff dwindled from nearly 1,000 to 420. 
We must increase funding and staff to the CPSC. We need to increase 
coordination between the CPSC and Customs officials. We must give the 
CPSC the authority to examine and approve other nations' regulatory 
systems before imports from those countries show up in our children's 
bedrooms.
  We need a leader at the CPSC who supports these goals. It is clear 
that Chairwoman Nord does not. She has been given the responsibility of 
doing everything in her power to keep our families safe and our 
children safe. Instead, Chairwoman Nord supports an abysmal agency 
budget request, is actively working against efforts to strengthen her 
agency, and takes trips funded by manufacturers.
  Chairwoman Nancy Nord should step down. It is time to put a 
chairperson in place who is not satisfied with: We are doing the best 
we can.
  We need a chairperson who fights for the authority and the resources 
the CPSC needs to do the job it is supposed to do--protect our 
families.
  We need real leadership at the CPSC--leadership that doesn't side 
with manufacturers over consumer safety, leadership that stands up to 
industry pressure, leadership that puts our children and our families 
first.

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