The Consumer Product Safety Commission—a lesser-known federal agency with a big mission to keep unsafe products off the market and out of our homes—is now under threat, say lawmakers and safety advocates. At a press conference Wednesday afternoon, they raised the alarm about a current proposal to eliminate the CPSC and urged the White House to reconsider. 

Earlier in the day, the five sitting commissioners addressed the plan as well in an unusually heated hearing—nominally about e-bike batteries—that became a debate about the agency’s future.

Since it was created by Congress over 50 years ago, the CPSC has operated independently and been run by a bipartisan group of commissioners. With a tiny annual budget of about $150 million, its work includes coordinating recalls of unsafe products, collecting data about product-related injuries and deaths, making and enforcing performance standards for the safety of products, and inspecting products coming in from overseas at the ports. In the last few years alone, the agency has initiated life-saving rules on children’s infant sleep products, furniture stability, nursing pillows, and button-cell batteries.

That work is now at risk, say advocates; a draft budget proposed by the Office of Management and Budget that leaked to the press earlier this month included a plan to do away with the CPSC as it stands in its current form. Under the plan, some of the CPSC’s staff, and all of its work, would move to a newly created division within the Department of Health and Human Services.

Advocates and safety experts say this move would make the marketplace a lot less safe for consumers, primarily because it would undermine the CPSC’s independence and its insulation from political and corporate influence.

“The CPSC’s ability to take strong action based on scientific evidence is critical to keeping people safe, and it’s tied directly to its status as an independent agency relatively insulated from day-to-day politics,” William Wallace, CR’s director of safety advocacy, said in a statement responding to the plan. “If you take that away, the CPSC all too easily could become a tool for the political interests of the White House, regardless of which party is in charge.”

When CR reached out for comment, an HHS spokesperson said that the proposal is “pre-decisional” and that no final determinations have yet been made. The Office of Management and Budget declined to comment on the record, and the White House did not respond to a request for comment.

On Wednesday, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., joined speakers from the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League, and Consumer Reports in a media call to bring attention to what they see as a disastrous plan.

“The idea that the CPSC would be merged—in effect eliminated—is abhorrent to me,” Blumenthal said. He said that he would be directly petitioning Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, and inviting his colleagues to join him in opposing the proposed change.

“The CPSC has always been a small but mighty agency, doing the job to protect consumers,” said Rep. Schakowsky. “Safety for Americans is the most important thing that people want; this is not a partisan issue.”

The lawmakers’ arguments were buttressed by parents of children who have died in incidents involving unsafe products, who also say that the CPSC’s ongoing work is vital to protecting families.

“Right now you see a high number of recalls involving furniture; this is a result of the CPSC’s efforts to protect other families and children from accidents similar to mine,” said Brett Horn, who founded an organization called Charlie’s House after his young son was killed in a furniture tip-over incident. “Your children are safer because of the CPSC.” 

Horn, along with Linda Kaiser, founder of Parents for Window Blind Safety, and Trista Hamsmith, whose daughter inspired Reese’s Law, that addresses button battery safety, also appeared in a video that has been circulating on social media this week, echoing the message.

“HHS does not have the authority to oversee household consumer products,” said Gabe Knight, senior policy analyst at CR. “Product safety would take a back seat at HHS, an already over-burdened department that oversees Medicare, Medicaid, the CDC, the FDA, and the NIH, and has recently fired thousands of employees. On the other hand, the CPSC has been an independent, bipartisan, and cost-effective consumer safety watchdog for over 50 years.”

At the Wednesday hearing, what might have been a fairly routine vote on the proposal of a new standard for the lithium-ion batteries used in e-bikes, e-scooters, and similar mobility devices took a turn toward the political, as the agency’s commissioners addressed the elephant in the room.

The three Democratic commissioners voted to publish the proposed rule in the Federal Register and kick off a 60-day public comment period. If finalized, the rule would help prevent battery fires in these products by, in part, mandating designs that prevent batteries from overcharging, and discourage the use of incompatible chargers.

Acting Chairman Peter Feldman, a Republican who took the helm of the CPSC earlier this year after previously serving as a commissioner, voted against publishing the proposed rule, not because of the merits of the rule itself but because he saw efforts to move forward with any rule to be an example of overreach by his colleagues. He cited a February 18 executive order by the White House instructing “so-called” independent regulatory agencies to submit any new proposed rules or regulations to the executive office for review before publishing them.

“It’s important to remember that President Trump won a historic reelection last year,” Feldman said. “None of us here have been elected to anything.” So, he argued, this rule should be submitted for feedback and approval first, in order to “ensure that the federal government speaks with one voice on complex policy matters like the one before us today.”

The other Republican commissioner, Douglas Dziak, agreed with Feldman and voted against publishing the proposed rule, calling such an action “ill-advised and defiant.” But the agency’s three Democratic commissioners all voted to go forward with the agency’s rulemaking process without first submitting it for White House review, outvoting the two Republicans.

Commissioner Alexander Hoehn-Saric, who chaired the agency during the previous administration, said that the February executive order violated the laws that created the CPSC and its rulemaking processes.

“Effectively, the White House is looking to replace the Commission as decision-maker and ignore the procedural requirements set forth in statute,” said Hoehn-Saric.

Feldman’s closing statement accused his Democratic colleagues of using the serious issue of lithium-ion battery safety as an occasion to “resist” the president with “political theater.”

“These Democrats are upset about our efforts to find efficiencies at the agency, which has been bloated and inefficient for too long,” said Feldman, adding that the agency was redirecting resources away from diversity, equity, and inclusion projects back to its core mission of keeping people safe. “I’d be upset, too, if I were them, because we’re beating them at safety.” 

In his closing statement, Hoehn-Saric spoke candidly about the effects of the current atmosphere of austerity across the federal workforce.

“The administration is pushing for changes and staff reductions that are hurting the agency’s ability to achieve its mission, and doing so in a way that’s scaring and driving off much of our staff,” Hoehn-Saric said. “We are a small but mighty agency that can be stretched too thin.”

He again underscored the importance of the agency keeping its independence and maintaining its current budget and staff levels. The CPSC is doing its job well, and doing it largely unnoticed, Hoehn-Saric said: “It’s hard to quantify the deaths that didn’t happen, the emergency room visits that were avoided, and the fires that were never started.”

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