No Quorum at Senate Nominations Hearing for CPSC's Adler; Three CPSC Nominees Now Waiting for Committee Action
The CPSC's Acting Chairman, Robert (Bob) Adler, testified before the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation for his confirmation hearing this week along with four other nominees for various positions within the federal government. Acting Chairman Adler was renominated by the President for a second term just last month. We noted in our earlier post there was a chance the other pending CPSC nominees, Elliot Kaye and Joe Mohorovic, could be reported out of committee for Senate confirmation if enough Senators attended the hearing to reach quorum and hold an Executive Session.
Although there were five nominees and four different areas of the federal government represented, the handful of Senators who attended were too few to achieve a quorum and an Executive Session was not held. This means all three nominees are now awaiting further committee action. There is no known timetable for when the committee will hold an Executive Session but many still believe the Senate will take action sometime prior to the August recess.
Because five nominees testified and only a handful of Senators appeared, Acting Chairman Adler was asked very few questions (though, he will still presumably have to respond to written "questions for the record" from Senators as a follow-up to his hearing). Questions and statements from Senator Thune (R-S.D.) focused on the amount of time it is taking the agency to make progress on reducing burdens associated with third party testing and the agency's recent settlement with Buckyballs (read Senator Thune's opening statement here).
Acting Chairman Adler's prepared testimony focused on the successes of the agency over the past few years as well as his desire to work in partnership with the regulated community and his current and future colleagues on the Commission. He also restated his priority to improve the safety of senior citizens, pointing to the recently announced Senior Safety Initiative and his desire to continue working on those issues if reconfirmed.