S. HRG. 111–446 NOMINATION OF INEZ M. TENENBAUM TO BE CHAIRMAN AND COMMISSIONER FOR THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JUNE 16, 2009 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 52–754 PDF WASHINGTON : 2010 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2104 Mail: Stop IDCC, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:07 Jun 14, 2010 Jkt 052754 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\52754.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia, Chairman DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas, Ranking JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota JOHN ENSIGN, Nevada BARBARA BOXER, California JIM DEMINT, South Carolina BILL NELSON, Florida JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington ROGER F. WICKER, Mississippi FRANK R. LAUTENBERG, New Jersey JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia MARK PRYOR, Arkansas DAVID VITTER, Louisiana CLAIRE MCCASKILL, Missouri SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota MEL MARTINEZ, Florida TOM UDALL, New Mexico MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska MARK WARNER, Virginia MARK BEGICH, Alaska ELLEN L. DONESKI, Chief of Staff JAMES REID, Deputy Chief of Staff Bruce H. Andrews, General Counsel CHRISTINE D. KURTH, Republican Staff Director and General Counsel BRIAN M. HENDRICKS, Republican Chief Counsel (II) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:07 Jun 14, 2010 Jkt 052754 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\52754.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE C O N T E N T S Page Hearing held on June 16, 2009 ............................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Pryor .................................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator DeMint ................................................................................. 3 Statement of Senator Hutchison ............................................................................ 24 Statement of Senator Lautenberg .......................................................................... 26 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 28 Statement of Senator Boxer .................................................................................... 29 Statement of Senator Warner ................................................................................. 30 Statement of Senator Isakson ................................................................................. 33 Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 34 Statement of Senator Vitter .................................................................................... 36 Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 39 Statement of Senator McCaskill ............................................................................. 41 WITNESSES Hon. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Senator from South Carolina .................................. 2 Inez M. Tenenbaum, Chairman/Commissioner-Designate, U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission ................................................................................. 4 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 5 Biographical information ................................................................................. 7 APPENDIX Hon. John Thune, U.S. Senator from South Dakota, prepared statement ......... 45 Response to written questions submitted to Inez M. Tenenbaum by: Hon. John D. Rockefeller IV on behalf of Hon. Chris Dodd .......................... 45 Hon. Frank R. Lautenberg ............................................................................... 46 Hon. Mark L. Pryor .......................................................................................... 46 Hon. Tom Udall ................................................................................................ 47 Hon. Mark Warner ........................................................................................... 48 Hon. Olympia J. Snowe .................................................................................... 49 Hon. John Thune .............................................................................................. 50 Hon. Roger Wicker ........................................................................................... 51 Hon. David Vitter ............................................................................................. 52 (III) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:07 Jun 14, 2010 Jkt 052754 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\52754.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:07 Jun 14, 2010 Jkt 052754 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\52754.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE NOMINATION OF INEZ M. TENENBAUM TO BE CHAIRMAN AND COMMISSIONER FOR THE CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION TUESDAY, JUNE 16, 2009 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:36 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Mark L. Pryor, pre- siding. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. MARK L. PRYOR, U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA Senator PRYOR. I’ll go ahead and call us to order, here. I want to thank Ms. Tenenbaum for being here, and I also want to thank Senator Rockefeller for asking me to chair this today. We are on a relatively tight timeframe because we have a vote scheduled on the Senate floor at 11:45 a.m., so what I’d propose, with my colleagues’ indulgence, is that I’ll do a very brief opening statement. Senator Hutchison is on her way, but she wanted me to go ahead and start. If she wants to do an opening statement, that’d be great, and then I’ll introduce our introducers, and then we’ll let the nominee speak. And then we’ll try to keep our ques- tions to 5 minutes, if at all possible, because we’ll try to move through these. We understand there are several Senators on the way, but they’ve encouraged me to get started, given our timeframe this morning. I’m very delighted to have Ms. Tenenbaum here. She is a real breath of fresh air. I’m glad that the White House saw fit to nomi- nate her. I knew that we were in pretty good shape when, the day she was announced, we had several consumer groups, as well as several business groups, come out in support of her. She also has the encouragement and support of her two home-State Senators, and we all know—on this Committee, we understand the trials and tribulations of the CPSC over the last few years. I think—just in layman’s terms, what has happened is, the CPSC has had its budg- et cut, and its resources dwindled as its challenges have increased. And when we saw this huge influx of products that were manufac- tured overseas, most notably China, but from a lot of places over- seas, the CPSC just, quite frankly, was not able to keep pace with that and was overwhelmed. (1) VerDate Nov 24 2008 07:07 Jun 14, 2010 Jkt 052754 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\WPSHR\GPO\DOCS\52754.TXT SCOM1 PsN: JACKIE 2 We’ve been working on this over the last couple years in this Committee. We were able to pass a bill last year. It passed over- whelmingly, went through both houses, and went through con- ference. Unfortunately, since that bill was passed, there has been a lot of controversy about the implementation of that. And so, most of that’s been resolved at this point. There are still a few out- standing issues. So, Ms. Tenenbaum, assuming that she is confirmed, which I don’t think there’s any question about that at this point, based on what I know, she will inherit a lot of things that she has to get in order, and things to fix, and we are very delighted that you’re here. So, until Senator Hutchison gets here, if I may, what I may do is introduce Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina for a state- ment. Welcome to the Committee. STATEMENT OF HON. LINDSEY GRAHAM, U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA Senator GRAHAM. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman, I’m honored to be here. It’s a big honor for all of the people in South Carolina to have Inez nominated for such an important job. And I call her ‘‘Inez’’ be- cause everybody that knows her feels very comfortable with her as a person. She is an enormously talented person. I’d like to thank President Obama for nominating her. As you indicated, this is an area where you can make news quickly. The Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commis- sion really holds a public trust, and I can assure you that the American consumer and their families are going to be in good hands with Inez at the helm of this very important public-safety institution. She has a background that is just, I think, perfect for the job. She was our Superintendent of Education from 1996—excuse me, from 1998 to 2007. We had the fastest advancement of any State in the Nation, in terms of national testing among our student popu- lation, and that was a real desire of hers, to make sure that our students improved. And they did. And at the end of her tenure, our State was recognized as having the most rigorous academic stand-