Reuters North American News Service, November 2nd, 2007
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Congressional Democrats
renewed attacks on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Friday after a report in The Washington Post said heads of
the agency took numerous trips at industry expense.
Sen. Robert Menendez said he would offer a bill that would
"prohibit officials at federal regulating agencies from taking
travel funded by the industries under their jurisdiction."
The New Jersey Democrat said he would offer legislation
after the newspaper said the current and former chiefs of the
safety agency have taken "dozens of trips at the expense of the
toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others
they regulate."
Controversy has swirled around the product safety agency
amid millions of recent recalls of lead-contaminated toys made
in China.
Sen. Richard Durbin of Illinois said he will amend a reform
bill already moving through the Senate along the same lines as
those described by Menendez.
"Regulators should not and must not accept travel from
those they regulate -- period," said Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat
in the Senate.
In the U.S. House of Representatives, Rosa DeLauro, a
Democrat from Connecticut, wrote to the safety agency's
inspector general to request an investigation into the trips.
She said the trips themselves may well have been
legitimate, but added: "Why doesn't the agency pay?"
The safety commission's acting chairwoman, Nancy Nord, said
in a statement that all travel by agency employees was approved
by its general counsel.
"Nevertheless, because questions have been raised about the
adequacy of these long standing procedures, I am asking the
Office of Government Ethics to conduct a complete review of the
agency's travel acceptance procedures," Nord said.
Menendez was one of several Democratic lawmakers who called
this week for Nord's resignation. Nord, a former White House
counsel and U.S. Chamber of Commerce executive, has said she
will not resign.
Menendez said parents had a right to be outraged. "It seems
that while American children were playing with lead-filled
toys, the people that should be looking out for them may have
been working on their golf swings with corporate bigwigs."
The Senate Commerce Committee Tuesday passed a bill to
give the safety commission more money, staff and legal clout.
The bill would also effectively ban lead in toys, require more
independent toy testing and improve recall procedures.
A similar House bill was introduced Thursday.
The Washington Post reported that Nord and her immediate
predecessor at the agency have taken nearly 30 trips since
2002, totaling around $60,000 in travel expenses to
destinations including China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans
and Hilton Head Island, South Carolina.
