Bush Signals Shift in Oversight of Goods
The White House announcement this week that President Bush plans to nominate Mary Sheila Gall to head the Consumer Product Safety Commission signals a radical shift in the government’s oversight of consumer products--from an agency recently known for its regulatory reach to one more likely to be characterized by its regulatory restraint.
Gall, a Republican who was first named to the three-member panel in 1991--by the current president’s father--is the opposite of the present chairwoman, Ann Brown.
Brown, a Democrat appointed by President Clinton in 1994, has aggressively pushed her 500-employee agency to issue recalls and safety regulations. Her repeated television appearances to publicize recalls and unsafe products and to often rebuke the companies that made the products have won praise from consumer groups but criticism from industry officials who privately complained they were being “regulated by press release.”
Gall has criticized Brown’s public approach to the job, writing a letter to USA Today in 1999 saying it was “frustrating . . . to witness the procession of proclamations issued by this agency on behalf of the federal Nanny State.”
Gall declined to be interviewed for this article, saying her nomination is pending in the Senate. But her votes and statements over the last 10 years reflect a hands-off regulatory philosophy that places greater emphasis on industry self-regulation and personal responsibility.
Nowhere is this difference with Brown clearer than in the positions the two commissioners have taken on baby bath seats, which were designed to make it easier for parents to bathe infants 6 to 9 months. There have been 67 deaths associated with the product, most occurring when the parents left a baby unattended. Brown has wanted these seats banned, arguing they give parents a false sense of security. Gall has maintained the problem is with the adults who misuse the seats. A vote may come next month.
Similarly, Gall voted against regulating baby walkers, saying the fault is not with the walkers but with parents who failed to close a door or install a gate to prevent babies from falling down the stairs.
She has also opposed a federal flammability standard for upholstered furniture to reduce the risk of fires from open flames such as cigarette lighters. The commission is supposed to reconsider the issue this year. Gall has argued that the proposed rule does not reflect real-life hazards and would cost far more than any of its benefits.
Gall has often been the one-vote minority. But that may not be for long: Once Gall is confirmed, Brown plans to leave the commission and set up a nonprofit organization to promote product safety.
Given her sharp differences with Brown, it’s no surprise that consumer groups that praised Brown have issued statements of concern regarding Gall’s appointment.
But some industry officials are applauding Gall’s nomination. “The last eight years have not been easy for a lot of manufacturers,” said Stephen Gold, a spokesman for the National Assn. of Manufacturers’ Consumer Product Safety Commission coalition, made up of industry associations and companies regulated by the agency. “There’s been a fair amount of harassment. . . . I think Gall will open her door and be willing to talk to manufacturers more openly about problems.”
Gall is not averse to regulations, approving rules when it’s clear the product is unsafe and there is no safer alternative. That’s why she approved a rule to make cigarette lighters child-resistant. The rule was supported by industry.
She also approved the recent $1.75-million settlement with Cosco Inc., one of the nation’s largest makers of baby products, and its parent firm Dorel USA Inc. for failing to promptly report serious product defects to the commission. The defects led to hundreds of injuries and two deaths. “If it takes $1.75 million in a civil penalty to get the attention of Cosco and Dorel to take the reporting requirements seriously,” Gall said, “I’m willing to approve it.”
