Senate Confirms Buerkle and Robinson

The Senate by unanimous consent June 27 confirmed Ann Marie Buerkle and Marietta Robinson as CPSC commissioners. As of the afternoon of June 28, CPSC did not know when they would start. Buerkle, nominated in late May (PSL, 5/27/13, p. 1), did not receive a confirmation hearing, prompting some dissatisfaction. For example, the consumer group Kids in Danger tweeted that legislators approved her “in the dark of night, with no scrutiny.” Robinson’s nomination had been on hold for nearly 14 months after her May 2012 hearing (PSL, 5/14/12, p. 1). President Barack Obama had nominated her five months earlier (PSL, 1/30/12, p. 1).

Buerkle takes the seat previously held by Anne Northup, who left last fall (PSL, 10/29/12, p. 1) and who recently joined Bracewell Giuliani’s Policy Resolution Group (PSL, 5/13/13, p. 6). Commissioner slots run for seven years, but do so even if vacant, so Buerkle’s term ends in 2018. However, CPSC rules allow commissioners to serve an extra year to facilitate replacing them. Thus she could be at the agency until 2019. Robinson will be in former Commissioner Thomas Moore’s position, which runs until 2017 with an option to serve until 2018. Moore left in 2011 (PSL, 10/24/11, p. 1).

As for how long it will be until Buerkle and Robinson’s first days, recent history suggests no more than a week or two. Northup and current Commissioner Robert Adler were confirmed in August 7, 2009 (PSL, 8/10/09, p. 1), and they joined CPSC the week of August 17, 2009 (PSL, 8/14/09, p. 1). Similarly, current Chairman Inez Tenenbaum took office June 29 of that year, eleven days after her June 18 hearing (PSL, 6/22/09, p. 1).

Buerkle, a Republican, is a former New York congresswoman who lost her seat in 2012. She was a member of the House Tea Party Caucus and the Republican Study Committee. She sat on various subcommittees of the Foreign Affairs, Oversight and Government Reform, and Veterans Affairs committees. In 2011, Obama named her as a representative to the 66th UN General Assembly. Prior to serving in Congress, she was an assistant attorney general for New York State from 1997 to 2009 and was in private practice from 1994 to 1997. She previously worked as a registered nurse. She has degrees from the St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing, Le Moyne College, and Syracuse University College of Law.

When nominated, Robinson, a Democrat, was president of the International Society of Barristers and has been with that organization since 1994. She also was the principal of the Law Offices of Marietta S. Robinson. She earned a B.A. from the University of Michigan and a J.D. from the UCLA law school. Past work included legal counsel to the chair of the UN Peacekeeping Commission to Liberia, trustee to the Dalkon Shield Trust, member of the Judicial Advisory Committee for Michigan’s eastern district, member of the Michigan State Building Authority, and member of the Michigan State Bar Representative Assembly. In 2000, she was a candidate for the Michigan Supreme Court.

The arrival of two new commissioners shifts focus to who might replace Tenenbaum and current Commissioner Nancy Nord. The former’s term ends this October, but she has voiced her intention to stay until her successor is confirmed (PSL, 3/4/13, p. 1). She could stay until October 2014 with her extra year. Nord currently is serving that extra year and will leave this October. Tenenbaum and Nord respectively are a Democrat and Republican. Their replacements could follow a similar track as did Buerkle and Robinson, whose confirmations reportedly were paired, one from each party.

The commission now will have a 3-2 Democratic majority; Adler is a Democrat. The CPSA dictates that only three members can be of the same party, and the majority traditionally has gone to the party holding the White House.