This year our nation has witnessed recall after recall of contaminated products including toys, vitamins, pet food, and tires. Our fundamentally-flawed trade policy, mixed with a resistant consumer protection agency, has eroded nearly 40 years of safety standards in our nation -- safety standards that allowed parents to trust that their children's toys were lead free.
I am proud to cosponsor legislation authored by Senator Pryor that would strengthen the Consumer Protection Safety Commission -- the agency charged with keeping our families safe from contaminated products.
Earlier this week, however, a New York Times story revealed that CPSC Acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord is actively working against these improvements. That is just plain shameful.
This morning's Washington Post revealed that -- in addition to fighting agency improvements -- Chairwoman Nord has enjoyed trips across the country paid for by the very toy companies she is responsible for regulating. That is just plain outrageous. These were trips paid for by the toy industry, the industry now under scrutiny for cutting corners. Corners that earn big profits for industry CEOs and send 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 all safe. Sadly, that does not appear to be the case with the CPSC.
Instead of working to strengthen her agency, Chairwoman Nord claims that her agency simply does not have the resources to improve. She claims that the legislation now working its way through Congress would over-burden the agency.
Why then -- one must ask -- did Chairwoman Nord fail to ask for more money when she met with the Senate Appropriations Committee earlier this year? The 2008 budget that Chairman Nord defended before Congress doesn't even increase the Commission's resources enough to account for inflation. It leaves this agency less well equipped to prevent harm to children and the rest of us.
She stood up before the House Financial Services Appropriations Committee and defended this budget, never once asserting the need for additional resources. What better opportunity could she have had to exercise her right to voice her views on funding?
The CPSC budget is half of what it was when it began in the 1970s. The CPSC staff has dwindled over the years from nearly 1,000 to 420. We must increase funding and staff to the CPSC. We need to increase coordination between CPSC and Customs. We must give CPSC the authority to examine and approve other nation's regulatory systems before imports from a country get on our store shelves. And we need a leader at the CPSC who supports these goals.
It is clear that Chairwoman Nord does not, and so she should step down. She has been given the responsibility of doing everything in her power to keep our families 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's time to put a Chairperson in place who is not satisfied with "we're doing the best we can." We need a chairperson who fights for the authority and resources the CPSC needs to do the job it is supposed to so.
We need real leadership at the CPSC. Leadership that does not side with manufacturers over consumer safety. Leadership whose only bottom line is the safety and well being of our nation, of our families, of our children.