About that currently two person commmission making all the rulings:
I learned today (while googling Julie Vallese and then her boss, Nancy Nord) that the third position on that panel has been vacant since 2006. There seems to be a lot of political partisan games playing going on around this.
According to a New York Times story from 2006, this CPSIA was a Democrat bill which President Bush was opposed to- for many of the reasons that have been stated here (not that he gets any credit for his opposition, since he signed the Democrat bill into law anyway, and the only person who voted against it was Ron Paul). His appointee Nancy Nord, head of the agency, TOLD Congressional Democrats they were turning the agency into a a litigatious mess instead of giving her the resources to protect children, and if this bill passed, she was going to be focused on hiring lawyers to fulfill the new directives the Democrat bill was imposing.
In response, they called for her resignation. She is still there. However, the third man resigned, leaving the agency in an interesting position because legally, the agency had to have three members in order to take certain actions (issuing recalls, for one thing).
President Bush did nominate a third person in order to give the Commission the legal quorum required, however, the Democrats refused to confirm his pick and eventually the guy withdrew. After that, Bush didn't make another nomination, and, according to this article,
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/safety/2008/02/cpsc-quorum.html the Democrats simply voted on 'temporary' extensions for the last two years, making the 2 person commission a 'quorum.'
Then, when they wrote the new CPSIA, they extended the authority of the temporary two member quorum for a full year (bringing them up to August of 2009, ie, after the election, making it clear that there was no point in Bush appointing a third member for the Democrats to refuse to seat)- and they changed the make-up of the Commission so that when Obama takes office this will be a five member commission.
That makes it imperative that people go vote at
http://www.change.org/ideas/view/save_handmade_toys_from_the_cpsia =
Obama has promised to discuss the top ten issues people vote on at that website, and this could be one of them. Obama will have the authority to appoint three new Commission members (possibly more, as I assume he has the power to replace Bush appointees, but I don't know for sure about that), and it is highly unlikely that Congress will refuse to seat *his* appointees.
Those five people are the ones who have 'the power to explain how smaller retailers and manufacturers should follow the new rules when they go into effect,' according to The Consumer's Union.'
So it also seems to me that whatever the current Commission says comes with an expiration date on it- their hands are basically tied, and even if they both get to stay on (and I have no opinion on whether or not they should), there will be three new members appointed by Obama, which is a majority. So it's imperative that those concerned about this bill make those concerns known (in a winsome and pleasant way, of course, after all as Senator, he voted for the bill as well), to the President-Elect.
More here:
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2009/01/cpsia-curioser-and-curioser.html
