The Consumer Product Safety Commission Road Show

Turns out that Santa isn’t the only one who combines toys and traveling. Nancy A. Nord, head of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, has been traveling the world on the dime of toy makers and other manufacturers she’s supposed to be regulating. Looks like someone might end up on Santa’s naughty list.

The Washington Post, which broke this story, explains that such “gift travel” (that’s the polite term for it) only violates federal rules, if the trip and the money spent by corporations “would cause a reasonable person . . . to question the integrity of agency programs or operations.”

Nord, you may recall, was last seen in this space, demanding Congress not increase the Commission’s budget, and not increase its powers of oversight. The Consumer Product Safety Commission, you may also recall, is a shell of an agency, having, for example, only one full-time employee to test toys. This despite the recent spate of poisonous toys imported from China. (Fun fact:  The Toy Industry Association helped pick up the tab for a trip to China by Nord.)

All in all, the Post’s story might raise a few questions in a reasonable person’s mind.

Tags: China, Consumer Product Safety Commission, Consumer safety, gift travel, Nancy A. Nord, Santa, Toy Industry Association, toys, Washington Post