Bush Handcuffs Consumer Products Safety Commission
Wed Jul 18, 2007 at 09:39:10 AM PDT
David Lazarus of the San Francisco Chronicle is a psychic. In February he wrote a column warning that Bush's failure to fill a vacancy on the Consumer Product Safety Commission that had existed for 6 months would lead to consumers being left unprotected from unsafe products. That's because:
According to the Consumer Product Safety Act, two commissioners can conduct the agency's business for six months after a third commissioner quits. After that, they're restricted from taking action on regulatory maters or civil penalties until the vacancy is filled.
So guess what? David Lazarus writes today about a Texas company called Kazuma Pacific.
Apparently Kazuma Pacific is importing from China a defective all-terrain vehicle for kids and that the company has refused to cooperate in voluntarily pulling the product from the market. From Bloomberg:
On June 5, the commission warned consumers to stop using the Kazuma Meerkat 50 Youth All-Terrain Vehicle because it lacks front brakes, a parking brake, and an indicator light and can be started in gear.
Back to Lazarus:
"We have a recalcitrant company that is failing to meet its obligations to safety," acknowledged Scott Wolfson, a spokesman for the commission.
He confirmed that the commission, because of its lack of a quorum, is unable to slap Kazuma with fines or force a recall. All that federal authorities can do is try to persuade retailers and distributors not to sell the defective vehicle, Wolfson said.
Kazuma doesn't seem too concerned though.
In a lengthy e-mail, Kazuma's president, Jason Tsai, said that he's instructed the Chinese manufacturer to make the Meerkat 50 safer, but it will take several months before the new-and-improved model makes it to the United States.
He said many Americans get hurt riding ATVs, and the commission should focus on raising awareness about the potential harm that accompanies such vehicles.
"I know hundreds of American died by riding ATV every year, thousands got injured, most of them are teenage, and the accident number is increasing every year," Tsai wrote in broken English.
He expressed surprise that the commission is targeting his company. "It seems to me that CPSC is more interests to destroy Kazuma name rather than just warning the public," Tsai wrote.
BTW, what happened to create that vacancy on the panel?
The commission has been without a full three members since July 2006, when Hal Stratton, who was appointed chairman by Bush in 2002, left to take a job with a law firm that specializes in shooting down class-action lawsuits filed by consumers.
Surely the President wants to make sure consumers are protected. Or maybe not:
The six-month mark was hit on Jan. 15. In March, Bush nominated Michael Baroody, a top manufacturing-industry lobbyist, to serve as chairman and thus oversee regulation of the business that for years provided him with a livelihood.
In May, Baroody withdrew from consideration one day before his Senate confirmation hearing was to have taken place. He'd been asked by senators to provide copies of his severance agreement with the National Association of Manufacturers.
The word out of Washington is that the White House has no one else in mind to fill the vacancy and that Bush might even leave the seat empty until the end of his term next year.
So there you have it. I'm hoping Bill O'Reilly picks up this story and runs with it :-)
Permalink | 11 comments