President Obama nominates Tenenbaum and Adler for CPSC positions
President Obama has nominated Inez Moore Tenenbaum, a former South Carolina superintendent of education, to serve as chairman of the commission (more background on her here) and Robert Adler, a law professor at the University of North Carolina,(more background on him here) to fill the one empty seat that has been open for over year. For the last 15 years there has one Chairman and two commissioners. Obama is expanding the commission from three members to five, so we are still short two more names at this point as Nord will be resigning as soon as a a new Chairman is confirmed by the US Senate. Nord has been criticized by most in the industry and Congress regarding the implementation of the CPSIA.
President Obama is also increasing the budget of the CPSC by $107 million (a 71% boost in the agency's funding). It is often joked about at the agency that the CPSC yearly budget is less that one day of the defense dept. budget. We should see the details this week as to the entire budget Obama proposed in February.
The CPSC, only has about 430 employees, which is one of the reasons many people feel that it has been hobbled in rolling out the new CPSIA.
Tenenbaum, a lawyer who ran for the US Senate in 2004, served two terms as the elected South Carolina education superintendent. A lawyer, she had practiced health, environmental and public-interest law with the firm Sinkler & Boyd and had been director of research for the Medical, Military, Public and Municipal Affairs Committee of the South Carolina House of Representatives.
Adler is a professor of legal studies at the University of North Carolina law school and law and ethics at the Kenan-Flagler Business School. He has served as the associate dean of the MBA program and as associate dean for the school's undergraduate business administration program. He served as counsel on the Energy and Commerce Committee, with work in consumer safety, under the chairmanship of Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.). Professor Adler joined Barack Obama’s transition team in October 2008. After the presidential election, he was one of two people asked to review the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.
It is interesting to note that both nominees are lawyers. Obama himself of course is a lawyer and former law School professor.
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