Small-Scale Debate on Big Government

The debate over the size and scope of the federal government is raging in the political sphere these days, as Republicans position themselves in firm opposition to the Obama administration's initiatives.

It's also playing out in small ways throughout the bureaucracy. Take, for example, the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Today, the agency announced that its commissioners had voted 4-1 to create a new Office of Education, Global Outreach, and Small Business Ombudsman. The idea is to "carry out education and outreach activities to domestic and international stakeholders, including manufacturers, retailers, resellers, small businesses, foreign governments, and consumers."

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum, a Democrat, lauded the move. "I believe this new office

will make the agency more accessible to stakeholders and will play a vital role in helping the CPSC fulfill its mission of protecting the public from unreasonable risks of death and injury from consumer products," she wrote in a statement praising the CPSC's action.

But Anne Northrup, a Republican commissioner, took a very different view. In a statement of her own, she argued that now is not the time for new federal organizations of any kind. "In the midst of a recession, when increased federal spending and the national debt threaten to drag our economy down further, the creation of any new government office or program is simply irresponsible."

Northrop said "the concept for this new office has grown steadily from where it started":

It began as a proposal to expand a part-time Small Business Ombudsman position to a full-time position (in our fiscal year 2011 budget) and has now swelled to include "global" outreach, a new director, and an unspecified budget and number of staff. I was cautiously optimistic about a similar idea put forth by Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) in his CPSEA legislation earlier this year, but I expressed concern even then that making any sort of new office like this a permanent, statutory fixture (which we know will become impossible to scale back or eliminate) would be entirely unnecessary and unwise during tight budget times.