Lawmakers Ask Obama to Dump CPSC’s Acting Chairman

Melanie Trottman reports on politics and consumer issues. Simmering tensions between Congress and the Consumer Product Safety Commission over snags in implementing the sweeping product safety law reached a boiling point as several lawmakers called for the commission’s acting chairman to resign. In a two-and-a-half page letter to President Barack Obama dated Tuesday, Sens. Mark Pryor and Jay Rockefeller and Reps. Bobby Rush and Henry Waxman said Nancy Nord has “grossly mishandled” the implementation of the legislation, adopted last summer after a series of children’s products were recalled for high lead levels and other hazards. The lawmakers suggested Obama ask Nord to step down as acting chairman and that the president “immediately present a designee for the Chairmanship to the Senate for its approval.” Nord, who was appointed by former President George W. Bush , has been the acting chairman since 2006. The new product safety law requires the CPSC to set standards ... (link)