Thursday, President Bush nominated Michael Baroody to be a commissioner on the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). Baroody is the current executive vice president of the National Association of Manufacturers, a trade group whose mission includes "shaping a legislative and regulatory environment" on behalf of manufacturers. Baroody's ability to shape America's regulatory environment will take on new meaning if he becomes a CPSC commissioner. The CPSC is the independent agency charged with protecting the public from dangerous products. The commissioners (of which there are only three) must be able to work with manufacturers to assess product safety, but also exert authority when industry cooperation does not go far enough in protecting the public. If you think a commissioner with such obvious strong ties to the industry he must regulate is a bad idea, you are not alone. Public interest groups are already sounding the alarms, and Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-CA) says she will give the nomination "thorough scrutiny," according to the LA Times. As Reg•Watch has blogged in the past, the CPSC has been short a commissioner since July, and its voting quorum recently expired. I find it depressing to have to contemplate which is worse: a commissioner like Michael Baroody, or no commissioner at all.

Yesterday, Joan Claybrook, president of the public interest group Public Citizen, testified before a Senate subcommittee on vehicle safety for children. Claybrook urged Congress and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to improve vehicle safety in an effort to reduce the number of children killed in vehicle related accidents — currently about five per day. Claybrook also chided the Bush administration for renominating Susan Dudley to be the White House's regulatory czar. As OMB Watch has pointed out numerous times (here, here, and here), Dudley's views are not consistent with those of the public and her installation would likely cause unprecedented rollbacks in health and safety regulations. Read more about Claybrook's testimony here.

Roll Call (subscription) ran an article this morning discussing the lobbying efforts aimed at the tobacco regulation bills currently in both chambers of Congress. In addition to the tobacco industry, the Petroleum Marketing Association of America and three advertising industry coalitions oppose the bill, according to the article. Why would seemingly disinterested parties oppose a common sense bill to regulate tobacco products? Because gas station owners make big money by selling cigarettes, and advertising companies make big money by promoting them. As if Big Tobacco is not enough of a force in Washington, now it's lining up its friends. Nonetheless, the bill moves forward. One of the Senate sponsors, Ted Kennedy, chairs a committee hearing on the bill today. As the Roll Call article points out, no industry representatives are scheduled to testify. Stay tuned to Reg Watch for more.