EPISODE SPOTLIGHT Pamela Gilbert and the CPSC Pamela Gilbert is a Partner at Cuneo Gilbert Flannery & LaDuca. She previously served as Executive Director of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, and she now chairs the board of the American Antitrust Institute and serves on the board of the National Consumers League. The first useful moment in the episode is her description of moving from outside pressure to inside responsibility. “When you're working for a public interest group, there's a great freedom to be as tough as you want. Once you're inside and you're the implementer, you have many more pressures on you.” |
That line carries the episode. The CPSC is small, underfunded, and responsible for thousands of products. Pamela remembers that, at the time, the Pentagon spent the CPSC's annual budget every hour and a half. So the agency had to choose its tools carefully: recalls, public pressure, congressional testimony, and the bully pulpit. The episode also covers the Raechel and Jacqueline Houck Safe Rental Car Act. Pamela explains the legislative fight that followed, and why the victims' mother is the strongest person Pamela knows. | 
