November 06, 2007
FDA Could Get Recall Power; Nord Defends Her Job At CPSC
UPDATED.
After a spate of product recalls raised questions about how best to protect consumers from dangerous products, a panel tasked with studying the problem has recommended that the Food and Drug Administration step in with broader powers to mandate recalls.
The FDA currently doesn't have the authority to entirely withdraw products from the market and can only threaten a company with negative publicity if it doesn't pull problematic items from the shelves. AP reports that the ability to force recalls would give the FDA "far more clout."
President Bush will receive the advisory commission's recommendations today. The panel, led by Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt, was convened in July; Congress would have to pass the changes for them to go into effect.
A second recommendation from the panel would give the Consumer Product Safety Commission more power to demand recalls and increase the international presence of inspectors from the CPSC, Customs and the Border Patrol.
It's unclear, however, exactly how the new powers granted to the FDA would impact the CPSC, which has faced serious criticism for the scares over Chinese and other products in recent months.
Nancy Nord, the acting head of the agency, came out against proposed legislative changes that would have doubled the CPSC's budget and authorized funds to hire more staff. Nord said she rejected parts of the plan that would have expanded whistle-blower protections and upped the government's ability to go public with reports of faulty products -- a step below the new powers the advisory panel's recommendations would grant the FDA.
When Nord appeared before a House committee to defend herself today, she tried to clarify her view on the proposed changes to the agency. She reiterated her support for an increased budget and called a proposed House bill "a win for consumers.''
But some of the members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee remained skeptical.
"It's one thing when we all resolve to work together on the millions of millions of products recalled in the face of danger or injury. It's another thing when the chairwoman designated to take care of those issues responds by saying it is too cumbersome to adopt the reforms suggested,'' said Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill.
Last week, legislators from both chambers of Congress began calling for Nord's resignation, but she told AP that she won't step down. "I have said repeatedly that I would welcome more resources," she said. "We need the right proposals; we need the right tools to do our job."
Other allegations are dogging Nord as well. She and her predecessor admit to accepting free trips bankrolled by industry groups, but she said CPSC attorneys cleared the trips and they were aimed at sharing information and discussing agency priorities. The charges about the trips speak to a broader criticism some officials and consumer groups level at Nord: that she is too chummy with industry, which largely looks favorably on her.
The AP quotes former CPSC chair Ann Brown as saying that Nord is "totally wrongheaded in her approach. She's forgotten that it's the Consumer Product Safety Commission, not the Business Product Safety Commission."
At today's hearing, Nord defended the trips but said she would support a ban on them if Congress felt it necessary. She also requested an Office of Government Ethics to determine whether the trips created a conflict of interest, although she reemphasized that the practice was "in place for 20 years, long before" her tenure at the commission.
Accusations of too-close ties to industry sunk the nomination of Michael Baroody, whom Bush tried to appoint to the job last spring. He withdrew Baroody's name after Senate Democrats spoke out against him because of his previous work as a lobbyist for the National Association of Manufacturers.
