Editorial: Consumer safety for sale

Sunday, May 20, 2007 | 6:57 a.m.

President Bush has nominated a senior lobbyist at a national industry group to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission - the government agency responsible for making sure that manufacturers follow consumer protection laws.

And while the Senate debates whether lobbyist Michael E. Baroody should be enforcing laws against his former clients at the National Association of Manufacturers, the association has promised to give Baroody a $150,000 departing bonus if he gets the government job.

Nothing like a cool $150,000 to help Baroody remember who his friends are.

According to a story by The New York Times last week, Baroody has told safety commission lawyers that, because of federal ethics rules, the money would force him to remove himself from agency decisions involving the manufacturer's association for two years.

However, Baroody said, the money would not prevent him from ruling on issues involving individual members of the association or keep him from being involved in those regarding small trade groups, such as those that make children's products and those that have alliances with the manufacturers association, the Times reports.

The National Association of Manufacturers, which represents the nation's largest companies, often has issues before the commission. Recently the group pressured the agency to ease requirements for when companies must notify the commission about defective products, the Times reports.

Consumer groups, pediatricians and firefighters are among those who rightly oppose Baroody's nomination, which the Senate Commerce Committee is to consider this week. Jay Berkelhammer, a doctor and president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, wrote senators a letter saying that Baroody has "led efforts to weaken the (commission) and opposed numerous initiatives to protect children and the public from unsafe products."

Baroody is the most recent in a string of industry representatives that Bush has rewarded with top posts at federal agencies, which in turn have eased the enforcement of safety regulations. As we noted in an editorial in April, federal safety enforcement has been relaxed in such areas as agribusiness, construction and transportation - industries that have given $630 million in political contributions since 2000.

With fewer than two years left in office, Bush still seeks to use government jobs as rewards for his political supporters. To allow a former industry lobbyist to chip away from the inside at such vital regulations, which are designed to protect Americans from being injured by the products they buy, is scandalous.