Four key members of Congress have encouraged President Obama to ask CPSC acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord, a Bush appointee, to step down immediately because of what they describe as the mishandled implementation of the new product safety law, according to USA Today.

"The CPSC has been limited by leadership that has philosophically contradicted strengthening and improving this agency for far too long," wrote Sens. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., and Mark Pryor, D-Ark., and Reps. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., and Bobby Rush, D-Ill.

The lawmakers' letter to Obama comes just before new tougher lead restrictions in children’s products are to take effect next Tuesday. As we reported earlier, a one-year stay on the CPSC’s enforcement of this provision was enacted last week by the CPSC in an attempt to provide time for the agency to address complaints raised by critics of the new law.

This is not the first time there has been a call for Nord’s head. As we wrote here, in the Fall of 2007, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other members of Congress supported a call for Nord’s resignation following a record number of recalls of unsafe products that slipped into the marketplace.

Clearly, this is a time for strong leadership at the CPSC.  We are in the midst of monumental product safety reform—a process that must be managed with great skill and foresight.  The future safety of consumers depends on it.