November 21, 2007

Contact: Naomi Seligman Steiner 202.408.5565 nseligman@citizensforethics.org

21 Nov 2007 // Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) has filed Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests with several independent federal agencies—the Federal Communications Commission, the Commodities Futures Trading Commission, the Federal Trade Commission, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Federal Maritime Commission, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Review Commission, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Surface Transportation Board, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Food and Drug Administration--seeking documents stating each such agency’s policy pertaining to the travel of agency employees, where funded in part or in whole by third parties. CREW also specifically seeks documents relating to any requests lodged by individual agency employees for approval to engage in third party-funded travel, dating back for the past several years. The Washington Post recently reported that the CPSC’s current chairman and her predecessor have “taken dozens of trips at the expense of the toy, appliance and children's furniture industries and others they regulate.”