WIS News 10 - Columbia, South Carolina | Tenenbaum says she's confident, ready to lead CPSC

Tenenbaum says she's confident, ready to lead CPSC

By Hannah Horne - bio | email

COLUMBIA, SC (WIS) - South Carolinian and former state Superintendent of Education Inez Tenenbaum is starting a 4-year term in the nation's capitol.

She'll lead the nation's Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Tenenbaum left early Monday morning for Washington DC. If she had first day jitters, you wouldn't know it. She is confident and composed to head the powerful Washington agency.

"Not only do I have the mandate to enforce the law, I'll be building the agency so we can meet the changes of a global economy with the imports we receive," said Tenenbaum.

Tenenbaum will be heading to work right away. Last week, two products that could be harmful to children were recalled. She is also met with several other challenges on day one.

"The agency has been cut by half over the past ten years, the other is the surge in imports," said Tenenbaum.

Those imports Tenenbaum alluded to are mostly children's toys that will soon have new expanded rules and restrictions under the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

"All imports and domestic children's products to have a certification from a third party lab," said Tenenbaum. 

Tenenbaum says she feels prepared to take on the position and called upon her experience as the former superintendent.

"Unless I had good relations with the state legislature and school districts and advocates for education and the business community, I could not advance my political agenda; those were good lessons for me to learn," said Tenenbaum.

Tenenbaum, a devoted wife and self proclaimed home-body, will return on weekends to her Lexington County home.

"It keeps me grounded and recharged to be in my home, so I'll be commuting as much as possible," said Tenenbaum.

Inez says practicing environmental law will also help her in this unique job.

She is expected to be sworn in later this week by either President Barack Obama or Vice President Joe Biden. 

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