The New York Times and the Washington Post have recently editorialized in favor of Senate legislation bolstering the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The Times focuses on the benefits of a proposed public database of Consumer Safety Complaints; the Post, meanwhile, appreciates the legislation’s "gradual increase in the agency’s funding" which has been "stripped down over the past decade."

Over the next month, Understanding Government will be taking an in-depth look at the Senate legislation and CPSC.  We concur with the Post and Times editorial pages that the Senate legislation is better than the status quo.  But we wonder if the bill sponsored by Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) will move the Consumer Product Safety Commission closer to the promise of its name. (more…)

Donald E. Powell, the Bush Administration’s federal coordinator of the Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, is resigning his post.  In Washington, appointees usually say that they need “more time with family” or cite “a desire to return to the private sector.”  Powell chose the latter formulation.  It’s clear from Spencer S. Hsu’s piece in the Washington Post that Powell leaves a frustrated man; his departing words talk more about plans than accomplishments.  Powell notes that “[a]ll we’ve got up is schools. What about fire stations? Police quarters, water, sewer, libraries?"  Louisiana officials see his resignation as another blow to efforts to bring post-Katrina New Orleans back from the brink.  Read Hsu here.

Washington Post reporter Rachel Dry provides a rundown of festivities surrounding the Department of Homeland Security’s fifth anniversary, but they look none too cheerful. It was March 1, 2003 when 22 different government agencies – from Customs and Border Protection to the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Services – merged into one cabinet-level department. Congressional hearings this week are more likely to probe the very viability of the Department of Homeland Security than to kick off a celebration of a job well done.  Read Dry here.