Obama Likely to Increase Regs on Consumer and Worker Safety

The Wall Street Journal reports that President-elect Barack Obama is signaling that his administration will beef up regulations at federal agencies that oversee consumer products, environmental policy and workplace safety. In addition to naming people to his transition team, "Obama has indicated in a series of pre-election letters to a big federal employee union that he intends to take a more pro-union approach on labor questions than his predecessor, and give agencies such as the Environmental Protection Agency more money." Obama's team is reportedly looking at a number of "activists and advocates" to lead agencies such as Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). "The new administration has said it favors doubling of the [CPSC's] budget, a streamlining of the nation's product-recall system that reduces companies' say in the process, and higher fines for safety violations." Given the consumer scares of the last year, this is one area where toughened regs actually makes sense.