Nancy Nord thinks a new Senate bill that would increase the budget and power of the CPSC would overwhelm the agency and “put the American people at greater risk,” according to the Washington Post.

“It is my and the CPSC staff’s assessment that many of our existing public safety activities would have to be severely curtailed or would cease entirely in order to attempt to fulfill all of the bill’s proposed statutory directives,” acting chairman Nancy Nord wrote Wednesday in a letter to Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-Hawaii).

Nord supports some of the bill’s provisions (we’re assuming she likes the part where they give her more money), but objects to two items in particular—a provision requiring the agency to hear and investigate whistle blower complaints and the raising of the cap on penalties to $100 million from $1.8 million. Nord claims that if the cap was increased, companies would flood the agency with “virtually every consumer complaint and incident of any kind, regardless of any actual product safety issue making it more likely that true safety issues will go unrecognized in the process.”

Heaven forbid the CPSC have to deal with our tipline.

Product Safety Chief Sees Setbacks in Senate Bill [Washington Post]
(Photo:AP)

Want more consumer news? Visit our parent organization, Consumer Reports, for the latest on scams, recalls, and other consumer issues.