It’s hard to believe, but the eight-year reign of George W. Bush and the bumbling “Bushies” is about to come to a joyous and merciful end. That’s great news for consumers, of course—but before anyone breaks into spontaneous choruses of “Ding Dong, The 'Warlock' Is Dead,” we should first take inventory of the incredible mess the administration will leave in our little area of the universe.
As fans of civil justice well know, consumers are kept safe from the havoc inflicted by corporate miscreants by both tough regulations and the deterrent effect of legal liability. Unfortunately, Bush and his cronies have done a lot of damage on both fronts—by turning federal regulatory agencies into apologists for corporate wrongdoing and then trying to use these agencies to immunize corporations from lawsuits.
We’ve written enough about this, but we found interesting a story in last Sunday’s Los Angeles Times quoting our friends at U.S. PIRG and the Consumer Federation of America, about what might be next. The article focused mainly on the disastrous recent records of the Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
It’s hard to believe the CPSC, most recently at the forefront of the holiday toxic toy scandal, will reform itself overnight. A new Chairperson who actually cares about consumer safety certainly will help. Then there’s the FDA, which has come under fire for seeking to reverse a long-standing policy on mercury-tainted seafood. But as loyal readers of ThePopTort know, that isn’t the half of it. (See here, here, and here.)
And there are many other agencies, of course, like Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which the Washington Post wrote about on Monday in an article called, “Under Bush, OSHA Mired in Inaction.” The Post wrote, “political appointees ordered the withdrawal of dozens of workplace health regulations, slow-rolled others, and altered the reach of its warnings and rules in response to industry pressure.… The result is a legacy of unregulation common to several health-protection agencies under Bush.”
Meanwhile, remnants of Bush’s battle for absolute corporate immunity will continue well after Bush has returned to hedge-trimming, mountain biking, and whatever else he’ll do in his new Dallas neighborhood.
Anyway, you get the idea, civil justice fans. The road ahead won’t be easy, but help is on the way. The country has voted for change—now it’s time to get to work! Happy new year!
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