U.S. PIRG To Congress: Look To States On Reform

STATES SET ETHICS EXAMPLE—Democracy Advocate Gary Kalman testifies before the April meeting of the Senate Rules Committee.

This spring, U.S. PIRG Democracy Advocate Gary Kalman was invited to appear twice before the House Special Task Force on Ethics Enforcement to provide evidence of the need for an independent panel to oversee ethics in Congress.

Based on U.S. PIRG’s February report, “Honest Enforcement,” Kalman urged task force members to look at more effective ethics oversight models in place in 23 states.

U.S PIRG has argued that the ethics oversight system in Congress is broken.

In written testimony for an April public hearing Kalman noted, “Jack Abramoff’s downfall was not the result of an aggressive ethics enforcement process. He was exposed to the Justice Department by a competitor turned whistle-blower. The Ethics Committees initiated no probe and didn’t ask any questions. They didn’t make any attempt to see if members had violated the rules and the public trust.”

To assure the public that Congress is serious about curbing corruption, U.S. PIRG has called upon the Task Force to recommend an oversight panel in which commission members may not hold public office, must abide by clear conflict of interest rules, cannot be removed for any reason other than cause, and have the power to handle complaints without partisan interference.

More Americans took part in the rule-making process for the forests rule than in any other federal rule-making in history. The Forest Service received 4.2 million public comments by the end of the 2004 comment period.

The Administration’s appeal in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals would make way for rolling back these protections, and put a third of our national forests back on the chopping block.

U.S. PIRG forest advocate Christy Goldfuss commented on the administration’s plan to appeal the ruling, saying, “How many more comments will it take for President Bush to hear the appeals that should count the most—those of the American people to protect our last wild places?”

Faulty Stoves Pose Danger To Kids, Elderly

In April, U.S. PIRG’s Ed Mierzwinski joined Public Citizen and Consumer Federation of America (CFA) to warn consumers that approximately 15 million to 20 million U.S. kitchens are equipped with stoves that could easily tip over and crush or burn consumers, a particular danger to children or the elderly.

The groups learned from Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and company documents that manufacturers are making cheaper, lighter-weight stoves that are prone to tipping over.

While no stove can be perfectly safe, retailers routinely fail to comply with a voluntary safety standard requiring that stoves have a safety bracket holding them to the wall.

In February, U.S. PIRG and CFA sent a letter to the CPSC asking why no action is being taken to enforce the standard.