Rush applauds President Obama's nominees to lead a revitalized Consumer Product Safety Commission

WASHINGTON, D.C. –– Today, U. S. Rep. Bobby L. Rush (IL-01) praised President Barack Obama for his nomination of Inez Moore Tenenbaum to serve as Chairman and Robert S. Adler to serve as Commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the federal agency charged with protecting the public from risks of injury or death associated with thousands of consumer products manufactured in the U.S. and abroad. He also commended the President for adding $107 million in urgently needed revenue for this vital consumer protection agency.
 
"I am very pleased with the caliber of nominees that President Obama has made to lead what I believe will be an aggressive effort to revitalize and strengthen this important federal agency," said Rush who, as Chairman of the Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection, has oversight responsibility for the CPSC. Last year, Rush presided over an effective, bipartisan legislative process that led to the enactment of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).  However, this year, he has voiced repeated frustration with the lackluster efforts by current CPSC leadership to effectively implement this law aimed, in part, at strengthening CPSC's ability to quickly remove hazardous products from store shelves.  On February 3, Rush joined other top House and Senate leaders in calling for the Acting CPSC Chair to step down and for President Obama to name new leadership as soon as possible.

"I believe, strongly, in the commitment of those dedicated men and women at the CPSC who wake up each day with the goal of doing right by the American people.  Today's move by the President is a welcome shot in the arm for a beleaguered agency that our nation relies on to, literally, serve as the first line of defense in keeping hazardous products out of the hands of children and unsuspecting families.  With the new leadership the

President has named, today, coupled with a 71 percent increase in resources for the current budget, the President has effectively begun the arduous task of returning this important agency to its rightful place of strength and advocacy on behalf of the American people."

Tenenbaum hails from South Carolina with a background that includes being elected to serve for two terms as the State's Superintendent of Education.  Adler is a nationally recognized consumer product safety expert and, currently, serves as a professor of legal studies at the University of North Carolina and the Luther H. Hodges, Jr. Scholar in Law & Ethics at Chapel Hill's Kenan-Flagler Business School.  A recipient of teaching awards both within the business school and university-wide, Adler's research and teaching focus on consumer protection, product liability, ethics, regulation and negotiation.

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