Senate confirms Tenenbaum

Saturday, Jun. 20, 2009

Senate confirms Tenenbaum

Former S.C. schools chief will lead Consumer Product Safety Commission

By JAMES ROSEN – jrosen@mcclatchydc.com

WASHINGTON – The Senate on Friday unanimously confirmed Inez Tenenbaum as chairwoman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission in unusually swift action on a top nominee of President Barack Obama.

Tenenbaum, in her first public comments since Obama chose her last month, said her first major task will be overseeing implementation of a sweeping consumer-safety law Congress passed last year.

“I’m looking forward to being the consumer advocate for the people and for the children of the United States,” she said in an interview shortly after the Senate voice vote.

• Inez Tenenbaum

About the newly confirmed head of Consumer Product Safety Commission

Age: 58

Family: Husband, Sam Tenenbaum

Education: Bachelor’s degree, University of Georgia; law degree, University of South Carolina

Professional experience: Attorney, McNair Law Firm; attorney, Haynsworth Sinkler Boyd (1986-92)

Political experience: S.C. superintendent of education, 1998-2006; ran unsuccessfully for lieutenant governor in 1994 and for U.S. Senate in 2004

The CPSC

About the Consumer Product Safety Commission

Headquarters: Agency operates out of Bethesda, Md., and has 430 employees

Duties: Oversees safety of 15,000 products, from toys and cribs to ATVs and toasters, focusing on products that pose fire, electrical, chemical or mechanical hazard or can injure children

Authority: Can compel manufacturers to recall products that pose serious risk of injury or death

Outlook: President Obama is seeking $107 million for the agency in 2009-10 fiscal year, 3.4 percent more than current funding.

On deck

President Barack Obama has tapped two more appointees with South Carolina ties who must be confirmed by the U.S. Senate.

Mignon Clyburn, Federal Communications Commission

Clyburn, of Charleston, is a member of the state’s Public Service Commission. She is the daughter of U.S. House Majority Whip Jim Clyburn, a Columbia Democrat. If confirmed, Mignon Clyburn will be one of the commissioners of the federal agency that regulates mass media such as television and radio.

Charles Bolden, NASA

Bolden, a Columbia native and former astronaut who now lives in Houston, has been nominated to head the nation’s space agency. If confirmed, Bolden will be in charge of the $18 billion agency.

U.S. Sen. Jim DeMint, who defeated the then-South Carolina public schools superintendent in their 2004 U.S. Senate race, congratulated Tenenbaum.

“I’m confident she has the determination and skills to lead this important commission,” DeMint said. “I look forward to working with her to ensure our nation continues to have the safest products in the world.”

DeMint, a Greenville Republican, had introduced Tenenbaum to other members of the Senate Commerce Committee at her confirmation hearing Tuesday.

U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Seneca Republican, also applauded Tenenbaum.

“I know Inez and am confident she will hit the ground running,” Graham said. “She will look out for American consumers and provide the agency with the leadership it needs.”

Congressional and Obama administration sources said Tenenbaum could be sworn into office as early as next week to take the helm of a demoralized agency that saw its staff and budget cut under President George W. Bush.

Tenenbaum, 58, said Obama or Vice President Joe Biden likely would swear her into the post, which carries an annual salary of about $149,000.

Reached at the weekend – and eventual retirement – home she and her husband, Sam, have near Caesars Head State Park in the Upstate, Tenenbaum said she planned to leave for Washington early Monday to shop for furniture for her new home outside the nation’s capital.

The Senate confirmed Tenenbaum in near-record time, approving her scarcely a week after getting her formal nomination papers.

Among 166 Obama administration nominees to date that require Senate confirmation, only three others have been affirmed as quickly, congressional and Obama administration sources said.

“There are a great number of challenges facing the Consumer Product Safety Commission, but the good thing is that Congress voted last year to revitalize the agency in light of the surge of imports and the fact that we live in a global economy,” Tenenbaum said.

Two-thirds of the products the commission regulates come from overseas, most of them from China.

China’s communist government has drawn the ire of consumer advocates because of health and safety problems caused by toys with lead paint, defective drywall and other products.

“One of the important challenges is to address the issue of Chinese drywall to determine what it is that’s corroding electrical wiring within the walls and also causing considerable respiratory problems to people who live in homes that use the drywall,” Tenenbaum said Friday.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires tracking labels for all children’s toys and third-party certification of imported goods.

Rosen covers Washington for McClatchy Newspapers in South Carolina.