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Monday December 19, 2022
CPSC IG Urges 7 Steps to Avoid Repeating 2021 Vote ConflictCPSC's Inspector General (IG) office made seven recommendations following its investigation into the vote on the agency's FY2022 operating plan. That 2021 event (PSL, 10/4/21) involved a then-Acting Chairman Robert Adler attempting to override a 2-1 vote. The IG wrote (bit.ly/3PlYsi9):
"We found that there were procedural irregularities in the Commission vote on the FY 2022 Operating Plan; that the acting General Counsel's nullification of the vote was improper; and that there was an unauthorized release of a related privileged document to the Washington Post." About the third finding, the IG did not learn information about how the Post reporter got the privileged legal review used to nullify the vote but did suggest the reporter, probably unintentionally, misattributed authorship.
The first two suggestions below are amended from their initial form based on CPSC management feedback although the IG characterized the reactions as generally concurring:
Republican Commissioners Dana Baiocco (who has since left CPSC) and Peter Feldman overrode the nullification 2-1. The initial trigger was Adler's concern over the pre-vote timing of the distribution of proposed amendments.
The Republicans were leveraging a few weeks of majority between the departure of Commissioner Elliot Kaye and confirmation of Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric. |