Surrogate Agency

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) is promoting a nationwide ban on the use of electronic devices in cars.

The NTSB gained tremendous respect over the years for their thorough investigations of aircraft, rail, and pipiline accidents. This was largely due to their independence from political influence.

Not so any more.

Recently they stepped into political waters by evaluating motorcycle safety. This was no accident investigation. They waded into political territory. Now they're calling for more national legislation.

Now this is just a guess, but I believe they're doing this at the behest of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). While NHTSA has a long history of calling for national legislation to save us from ourselves, they have been barred from lobbying.

So what's a poor agency to do when they're barred from lobbying? Find another government body to do their work for them, of course. By relying on the good reputation of the NTSB, they can call for more traffic laws without actually doing it themselves.

How do we confront this flanking maneuver? It all comes down to political power.

Agency heads are political appointees. They get their jobs and their missions from elected officials. You can write agencies all day long, but they answer to their masters.

A wise man once said, "If you have a problem with the dog, go for the one who's holding the leash." When candidates hit the campaign trail in 2012, that's the time to make it an issue. The rest will take care of itself.