Washington, D.C. - Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) issued the following statement after President Trump announced last night that he intends to nominate Dr. Nancy Beck as Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC):
“This nomination ranks up near the top of bad nominations in the Trump Administration, and that’s saying a lot. Dr. Beck’s troubling record of doing the bidding of the chemical industry at the expense of the health and safety of the American public shows she is the wrong choice to chair the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“After spending five years as an executive at the American Chemistry Council, Dr. Beck was appointed by Trump to advance the industry’s agenda from within the Environmental Protection Agency. There, she rewrote a rule to make it harder for the agency to track the health consequences of PFOA, a toxic chemical linked to cancer, birth defects and other serious health issues. She also plotted against efforts to ban methylene chloride and trichloroethylene, harmful chemicals that have caused deaths. Even before she was employed by the chemical industry, Dr. Beck earned a reputation at the Office of Management and Budget for overruling agency science on chemical risks, including the risks of flame retardants regulated by the CPSC.
“The CPSC needs a strong and nimble leader who will restore consumers’ trust that the Commission is working to protect them not to bolster industry profits, and Dr. Beck is not that leader. Strong leadership is particularly needed at the Commission after years of acting too slowly on a number of product safety hazards that put babies and children at risk - from deadly inclined sleepers for infants, jogging strollers that fall apart and hazardous residential elevators.
“If she is confirmed to chair the CPSC, there is no question she would actively undermine the Commission’s mission to protect the public from product safety risks. With the CPSC poised to act on flame retardant chemicals in consumer products, among other hazards, Dr. Beck would undoubtedly continue to advance the industry agenda from her new perch and undo any progress that has been made."
