It’s been a while since we’ve blogged about the unnecessary and extraordinary harm done by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, the 2008 legislation that has driven safe products off the market, effectively banned pre-1985 children’s books, and forced thrift stores to remove toys and winter coats from their shelves.

Hugh Hewitt, in his interview with NAM President John Engler Tuesday, reminds us of the CPSIA’s swath of economic damage, even as the radio host makes a broader point. From the transcript:

HH: Now this brings me to the key question, Governor, because a couple of my law partners, Gary Wolensky and Liz McNulty do a lot of time advising companies about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, I know how botched up that is. I know how it’s ruined manufacturing and destroyed competitiveness, et cetera. A lot of people like me don’t really trust Congress to do any of this well. If they can’t handle something as simple as lead levels and phthalate levels in products, how could they possibly get this right?

Good question. A powerful enemy of economic recovery is uncertainty, the doubts of businesses, investors and the public about government’s intentions. If you’ve followed the impact of the CPSIA — a bill passed with overwhelming Congressional support — then it’s reasonable to fear much larger legislative adventures like health care reform or government control of carbon dioxide.

At least the excesses of the CPSIA have finally — finally! — created a consensus that Congress must act. The Consumer Product Safety Commission on January 15 sent a report to Congress about the law’s implementation, a communication that included a call for a legislative action that embraced. (Congress had requested the commission’s recommendations in the conference report on the CPSC’s appropriations bill, included in the DOT spending bill.)

(continue reading…)

The Senate confirmed a lengthy list of nominees right before adjourning for the August recess, including Anne Northup and Robert Adler to serve on the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Congratulations.

We’ll post news stories when they become available.

UPDATE: (5:30 p.m.): No stories yet. The August somnolescence begins.

Along with CPSC nominees Robert Adler and Anne Northup, the Senate Commerce Committee on Wednesday reported out the nomination of Dennis Hightower to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce. Here’s the list of approved nominees:

• Susan L. Kurland, of Illinois, to be an Assistant Secretary of Transportation.
• Christopher P. Bertram, of the District of Columbia, to be an Assistant Secretary of Transportation.
• Dennis F. Hightower, of the District of Columbia, to be Deputy Secretary of Commerce.
• Christopher A. Hart, of Colorado, to be a Member of the National Transportation Safety Board for a term expiring December 31, 2012.
• Patricia D. Cahill, of Missouri, to be a Member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting for a term expiring January 31, 2014.
• Daniel R. Elliott, III, of Ohio, to be a Member of the Surface Transportation Board for a term expiring December 31, 2013.
• Robert S. Adler, of North Carolina, to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission for a term of seven years from October 27, 2007.
• Anne M. Northup , of Kentucky, to be a Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission for a term of seven years from October 27, 2004.

UPDATE (8:38 a.m.): Controversy, but for the Surface Transportation Board nominee, Mr. Elliott. From CQ Politics, “Senators to Union: Apologize or Else“:

Two senators say they want an apology from the United Transportation Union for a letter that, in their view, suggests influence-peddling.

If they don’t get their way, they’ll stand in the way of the nomination of a lawyer for that union who President Obama selected to serve on the Surface Transportation Board.

Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas, said Wednesday that although she voted to approve the nomination of Dan Elliott out of committee, she will place a hold on it until the union explains itself….[snip]

The letter from union president Mike Futhey calls Elliott’s selection a “tribute to the political influence” of the union.

Committee Chairman Jay Rockefeller (D-WV) called the release “embarrassing, ridiculous, self-aggrandizing PR,” and “totally inappropriate, absolutely inexcusable.”

Hearing for Commerce nominee Hightower now over.

Prepared statements from CPSC nominees:

Mr. Robert S. Adler

Ms. Anne M. Northup

We’ve been Tweating the hearing @NAM_Shopfloor

Hardly any news so far, though, except for Sen. Hutchison indicating the expectation is that the Commerce Committee will mark up the nominees quickly and the Senate will vote on confirmation by the end of the week.

UPDATE (11:45 a.m.): The hearing adjourns. Senators are feeling time pressure, and Adler and Northup are both solid nominees, so Chairman Pryor and committee members decided not to belabor the issue. Sen. Mark Pryor (D-MO), who chaired the hearing, also indicted a quick vote on confirmation.

Adler was clearly more knowledgeable than Northup about the CPSC, but that’s understandable given his agency and Capitol Hill experience. His most welcome comment came in a response to Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison’s inquiry about stays of enforcement, which he said he was not a fan of. In some cases they are too restrictive for “virtuous companies” but too loose for the “unvirtuous.” Adler expressed the willingness to look through the issues and say that CPSC may need to come to Congress for discretion, i.e., statutory changes to the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

Hutchison also asked the nominees to come back with “corrections” for Congress, and Northup and Adler agreed.

Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) asked about contaminated Chinese drywall, which Northup saw as a major problem. (Contaminated dry-wall is a high-interest topic in the South and among trial lawyers.)

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) mentioned her home-state snowmobile companies, Polaris and Arctic Cat, and said referring to the lead standards said Congress did not expect the CPSIA to affect ATV sales as it did. (Children’s models were effectively banned.) She also urged the nominees to work with the Handmade Toy Alliance, also based in Minnesota, which has protested the CPSIA’s excesses, including the testing requirements that threaten small toymakers.

The one statement we did not hear: “I know the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act has put people out of business…”

UPDATE (1:35 p.m.): Should have noted that Sen. Hutchison also pointed to inconsistencies and enforcement by state attorneys general as subject worthy of concern. (Hat tip to Jen at Way to Bow.)

Last week President Obama announced his intent to nominate former Kentucky Congresswoman Anne Northup to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but as of 7 a.m. today there’s no indication on the White House webpage of the actually nomination having occurred. You can’t have a confirmation hearing without a nomination.

But it is, Page S8701of the Monday Congressional Record:

CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION
ANNE M. NORTHUP, OF KENTUCKY, TO BE A COMMISSIONER
OF THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY
COMMISSION FOR A TERM OF SEVEN YEARS FROM OCTOBER
27, 2004, VICE SAUNDRA BROWN ARMSTRONG, RESIGNED.

The Senate Commerce Committee’s confirmation hearing is set for Wednesday, 10 a.m. Also appearing is Robert Adler, a former top CPSC staffer. Given the economic damage wrought by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, it might be helpful for Senators to call on Adler’s expertise and ask whether the CPSC should be given more flexilibity to implement the law. But we doubt that happens.

It’s certainly possible that the committee will work quickly on these nominations, vote them out right after the hearing and have a Senate vote (or unanimous consent) to confirm them before Senators leave at the end of the week.

UPDATE (7:25 a.m.): Didn’t immediately note that Northup’s term will expire in October 2011. Adler’s seven-year term starts with October 27, 2007, meaning he has until 2014.

The Senate Commerce Committee has announced a hearing for next Wednesday on the nominations of Anne Northup and Robert Adler to serve as commissioners on the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Details here.

That’s quick. (The President has only announced his intention to nominate Northup. Assuming the actual nomination comes today or Monday.)

News coverage on Northup’s nomination:

• Louisville Courier Journal, “Obama picks Anne Northup for Consumer Product Safety Commission.“
• Lexington Herald-Leader, “Obama to nominate Northup for consumer safety post“

MSNBC characterized the nomination as another “step by Obama to bring Republicans into the Administration.”  Since it’s a commission seat reserved for a non-Democrat, not really. A clarification followed.

The White House yesterday issued a statement announcing President Obama’s plans to nominate the former U.S. Representative from Kentucky, Anne Northup, to be a member of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. She would hold a Republican seat on the commission.

If Northup and Robert Adler, a Democrat whom the President nominated in June, are confirmed by the Senate, the CPSC would reach its full five-member composition called for by the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Gaining that full membership increases accountability and, theoretically, responsiveness to the public.

During her five terms in Congress, Northup was a strong supporter of the U.S. manufacturing economy. Her voting record on “Key Votes” as identified by the National Association of Manufacturing’s Key Vote Committee was always between 90 and 100 percent, and she received the NAM’s Award for Manufacturing Legislative Excellence. (Voting record summary.) So Northup appreciates what it takes to create a strong economy.

It’s also safe to identify her as being endorsed by the Senate Republican Leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky. Presidents defer to the Senate leaders and home-state Senators when selecting political appointees from the minority party.

If there’s any heartburn at all here, it’s that President Obama has chosen to follow the political model when making appointees to this regulatory agency. That’s the approach where the executive rewards party loyalists, often defeated candidates for public office. CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum ran and lost a U.S. Senate race in South Carolina; Northup lost her race for governor of Kentucky. (Adler, it should be noted, was a longtime CPSC staffer.)

The other approach is to appoint experts or people with experience in the regulated subject matter to a regulatory agency. In this model, the regulatory agency is led by people who strive to be impartial arbiters, making decisions purely on evidence, science and the Congressional intent behind the law.

The political model’s strength is that the appointees may be more sensitive to the impact their regulatory decisions have on the public. Tenenbaum, a former state education superintendent, and Northup are both experienced in listening and responding to constituents.

The downside is the appointees often defer to the members of Congress, especially the heads of the committees of jurisdiction and the appropriators. It’s not unusual for staff members of regulatory agencies to grouse that, “Oh, Chairman X has gone up to the Hill to get his marching orders.”

Politics have not served the public, consumers or manufacturers in the drafting and enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. As we have detailed in scores CPSC Update posts, the law has made safe products illegal, deprived consumers of desired products, and put people out of business. The economic costs amount of hundreds of thousands millions of dollars, yet the committee members in charge have dismissed the protests as whining or the pleas of greedy business people.

As a regulatory agency, a CSPC that defers to partisan politics, Congressional dictates and the zealousness of “consumer activists” will NOT be serving the public.