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Show The Paper That Dares To Take A Stand 1976 The Utah December 9, Independent Page 7 RALPH NADER AND CONSUMERISM be a rear attack on a basic Constitutional right. Congressman Symms and his allies in the House of Representatives achieved a signal victory on the floor of the House on June 24. When the HUD-Independ- regulatory agency whose whole purpose is the destruction of private control of industry and business in America." THE AGENCY FOR CONSUMER PROTECTION ent In 1975, both houses of Congress voted Agencies Appropriations Bill was being which included funding for to establish a consumer protection agency. considered the Consumer Product Safety Com- This was the first time both had agreed mission Symms offered this amend- to do so in the same session since the ment: "None of the funds provided to the proposal emerged in 1970. In 1974, the House passed the conConsumer Product Safety Commission try this Act may be used for the preparation sumer bill by a vote of 293 to 94. Howor enforcement of regulations to restrict ever, in 1975 a big switch took place. the sale of firearms, ammunition or As a consequence the vote was 208 to 199 --- a margin of only nine votes. components thereof. On November 18, 1975, Senator Paul Symms amendment was successful, marking the first time that Congress has Fannin stated that "the closeness of the actually gone on record in opposition to House tally reflects, I think, an increasing firearms and ammunition control by the awareness on the part of members (2 CPSC. Congress that a new federal agency and In a press release of July 4, 1975, another layer .of bureaucracy are unin the House, needed and unwanted by the American victory referring to this Symms said: f Federal gun controls are people, by the consumers that the legisonly inevitable if we believe that they are. lation is supposed to protect. The real truth of the matter can be summed Following are comments made by up in the words of John Paul Jones: members of the House of Representatives We have just begun to fight! during the debate on November 6, 1975, on H.R. 7575, the bill to establish an THE NAME OF THE GAME IS "CONTROL" Agency for Consumer Protection (ACP): The Associated Press reported on Congressman John M. Ash brook: "The May 12, 1976, that President Ford had ACP could force business to provide signed a bill increasing the power of the information under its own independent Consumer Product Safety Commission but interrogatory authority. It would act as a excluding pesticides, tobacco and fire- grand inquisitor, issuing arms from its jurisdiction to eliminate interrogatories to businessmen on overlap with other government agencies. virtually any subject.... The Agency for In signing the bill, Ford said that the Consumer Protection would be free to Act expands the Commissions authority intervene in any federal action which by permitting it to issue preliminary inmay substantially affect an interest of junctions prohibiting distribution of consumers. And who makes this determipotentially hazardous products. (Authors nation? The ACP Administrator, of note: With the CPSC deciding what is course. ...In other words, the ACP would court-enforcea- be a super-agenc- y. "potentially hazardous.) according to the AP dispatch, also Congressman Floyd D. Spence: "The authorized federal preemption of State Agency which we are being asked to create product and safety laws "in certain today would be literally a law unto itself. circumstances and establishes "new With authority. Senator Sam J. Ervin has procedures and timetables for meeting commented, that no responsible man consumer safety standards. would want and no irresponsible man All of which, of course, increases the should have. The administrator of this would necessarily be one of super-agen- cy power of the federal regulators. the most powerful persons in the country. Congressman Ashbrook: "According In her aforementioned article, Lillian to a survey conducted by Opinion ReBoehme concluded by declaring: search Corp. of Princeton, N.H., fully 70 oppose the creation of an independent "Chairman Simpson (of the CPSC) consumer agency. Only 13 favor this and his Safetycrats are not interested are interested in product safety. They step. Moreover, half of the 13 change over in in control arbitrary power and retailer in the industrialist every their minds when they are told the cost of the agency. country; the power to send men to prison on slender pretexts or none; the power to. control every product in the country by controlling the producers; the power to impose upon American industry the fascist system" of power via fear.... "The actions of the CPSC are... blatant violations of constitutional Congressman Symms: "Already taxpayers are forced to support more than 75 separate agencies of the federal government, each one competing to surpass the others in their sheer volume of regulatory decrees.... "What consumers need to be protected against is inflation, high taxes, and the systematic destruction of Amer rights and due process. They represent a power grab by a Please send me Payment of $ 1 NOTE DISCOUNTS FOR QUANTITY ORDERS 25 copies -- - $18.75 copy -- - $1.50 5 copies - $4.50 50 copies 10 copies - $8.25 100 $36.00 Even though the Agency for Consumer Protection Act has passed both houses of Congress,! it has not as yet (as of June 11, 1976, when this chapter was written) been signed by the President. .Therefore, as of this date the ACP is not yet in effect. Should the President veto it, the veto would easily be sustained by the House because, as mentioned previously, the House passed the bill by only nine votes. Meanwhile, the federal regulators are. avidly engaged in hounding and harassing business firms, large and small, under the provisions of OSHA, which is discussed in the next chapter. - Radiation hazards are rea- lit ble The measure, THE INDEPENDENT AMERICAN P.O. Box 636 Littleton, Colorado 80120 ican productivity by federal regulation and harassment. 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