In the Public Interest

In the closing days of the 92nd Congress, President Nixon unleashed a virulent, anti-consumer lobbying effort which succeeded in defeating or blocking major consumer protection legislation. All lip service to consumer interests in health, safety, and dollar value in the market place was swept aside as White House operatives lobbied along with corporate interests to…

Uncle Sam is the biggest consumer in the country. Federal agencies, military commissaries and PX’s regularly buy almost everything that ordinary consumers purchase — food, clothes, household appliances, drugs, autos, tires, light bulbs, detergents, blankets, and many other items. With these multi-billion dollar expenditures annually, there is very little testing done to determine what is…

Two months ago, when a bill to establish an independent consumer product safety commission was at a critical juncture in the House of Representatives, a five‑page unsigned memorandum was quietly left at several members’ offices by a prominent Washington law firm. The memo took note of Chief Justice Warren Burger’s recent criticism of Congress in…

Information is the currency of democracy. Nobody understands this better than the omnipresent corporate lobbyists in Washington who work daily to keep control of crucial information and deny it to the citizenry. Behind every scandal coming out of Washington recently, from the misuse of campaign contributions to the big grain deal, there was involved suppression…

With Congress in its stretch drive before adjournment, it looks as if only three consumer protection bills will be passed over the relentless opposition of corporate lobbyists, often in subtle concert with White House aides. The most important of these bills would establish a consumer protection agency to represent consumer interests before other federal regulatory…

A few weeks ago we sent a questionnaire to former members of the Senate and House of Representatives, as part of our year-long study of Congress. The most spirited and fundamental response came from Jeannette Rankin, born in 1880 in Missoula, Montana and the first woman ever elected to the Congress. Indomitable and innovative as…

If there is anything worse than an Administration that hides its wrongdoings, it is one that also suppresses its right thoughts. The Nixon White House is doing just that, first by sitting on a report entitled Energy Conservation by its Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) and then, after a trade journal obtained a copy through…

It takes the power and greed of the auto companies to show how seriously the Nixon Administration’s price control program has failed the consumer and worker. Partly because of consumer and labor pressure, but mostly because General Motors and Ford overreached themselves in demanding large price increases, the Price Commission has relented and will hold…

A controversy is brewing over the ownership and use of underdeveloped and agricultural land in the U.S. The cries of land fraud, land dispossession and the need for land reform are uttered frequently from a wide diversity of groups. On one side are small farmers and landowners, conservationists, elderly retired people, and officials who fake…

A dull letter with exciting possibilities for consumers was delivered privately a few days ago by the General Accounting Office (GAO) to the Federal Trade Commission — the agency that is supposed to protect consumers and fight monopolies. The GAO, a Congressional watchdog over federal expenditures, advised the FTC that it had the authority to…