“When CPSC officials accept so many trips paid for by industries they're supposed to regulate, you’ve got to ask whether America’s consumers are being taken for a ride,” said Rep. Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection Subcommittee, which has oversight authority over CPSC.

The Washington Post report outlines nearly $60,000 worth of airfares, hotels and meals accepted by the CPSC’s acting chairman, Nancy Nord, and the previous chairman, Hal Stratton, since 2002. The trips were paid for in full or in part by trade associations or manufacturers. Though CPSC officials have defended the trips, government regulations clearly state that the CPSC should not accept such funds if the payments “would cause a reasonable person . . . to question the integrity of agency programs or operations.”

“American consumers deserve a full accounting of who is paying for trips and gifts accepted by CPSC officials, when these trips occurred and whether they complied with government gift rules. The CPSC’s credibility already is in tatters, and today’s revelations reinforce the view that Commission leadership is too cozy with the industry it oversees,” said Rep. Markey.

“Under the Bush administration, the CPSC has become an industry lapdog, instead of an industry watchdog it is supposed to be. In a classic ‘fox guarding the henhouse’ maneuver, the Bush administration even nominated an executive of the association representing the nation’s biggest manufacturers to be chair of the CPSC and regulate many of these very same manufacturers.

“While that nomination was withdrawn after intense criticism, the Commission still lacks the needed resources to perform its important mission. As a member of the committee with responsibility for oversight of the Commission, I will soon be introducing CPSC legislation and look forward to working with my colleagues to bring the CPSC back over to the side of protecting American consumers, not manufacturers.”