WASHINGTON – As today’s Washington Post is reporting that the current and previous Chairs of the Consumer Product Safety Commission have taken “dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate,” U.S. Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ) is announcing his intention to quickly introduce legislation that would prohibit officials at federal regulating agencies from taking travel funded by the industries under their jurisdiction. The report of this travel by the CPSC heads comes as concerns over the safety of imported products – particularly toys containing lead – are growing rapidly.

“It seems that while American children were playing with lead-filled toys, the people that should be looking out for them may have been working on their golf swings with corporate bigwigs. Parents have a right to be outraged.

“The government needs to work for the people it represents, not for big corporate interests. I will quickly introduce legislation to extract this type of inappropriate industry influence from the federal agency oversight process. Protecting the safety of American families should be the top priority for federal agencies – not protecting the profit margins of the industries they regulate. Earlier this year, we passed landmark legislation to limit lobbyist influence on Capitol Hill and privately-paid travel. Now we must do the same for the executive branch.”

Earlier this week, Sen. Menendez called for the Chairwoman of the CPSC, Nancy Nord, to resign, and he signaled his strong support for the bill to strengthen the CPSC that passed out of the Senate Commerce Committee (http://menendez.senate.gov/newsroom/record.cfm?...).

According to the Post, Nord and her predecessor have taken nearly 30 trips since 2002, totaling around $60,000 in travel expenses. The Post reported that “the destinations included China, Spain, San Francisco, New Orleans and a golf resort on Hilton Head Island, S.C.”

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