In an unprecedented attack on consumer rights, the highest levels of the Bush Administration have been ordering various federal agencies to restrict consumer rights and creat complete immunity. FOIA requests by the American Association for Justice (AAJ) released this week detail how helping corporations escape accountability for dangerous products has been the administration’s top priority.
Since 2005, seven federal agencies have issued over 60 proposed or final rules with preemption language in the preamble. Each of these changes take away important consumer rights that exist in State law. For example, the pharmaceutical industry intensified its efforts to influence the FDA in the months leading up to the physician labeling rule’s release on January 24, 2006.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal, it was reported that because the pharmaceutical companies didn’t want to follow state laws and because the Administration couldn’t get congress to go along, there were regular meetings to create a system that would use federal agencies to get around existing laws.
These finding are troubling and clearly go against the very right of each state to protect their consumers.
