U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Background The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has federal regulatory authority over consumer products sold in the United States, including among other things responsibility for the collec on and dissemina on of data, assistance in necessary product recalls, and safety standard development. This small federal agency is overseen by a five-member commission appointed by the White House and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. CPSC has approximately 500 employees and an annual opera ng budget of $180 million, and is based in Bethesda, Maryland. Agency issues Current makeup The current commission includes Peter Feldman (Ac ng Chair, Republican) term ending 2026 and Doug Dziak (Republican) term ending October 2025 (currently serving allowed holdover year). This follows the White House’s May 8 dismissal of all three Democrat commissioners, despite the statutory and agency procedures that define the commission as an “independent” federal agency, insula ng commissioners from removal on the basis of policy/poli cal differences. There is and could be addi onal legal ac on challenging this move at the CPSC and other such federal agencies, but nonetheless it leaves the agency with only two commissioners who under commission procedures are s ll considered a quorum and able to operate for a holdover period of six months, running from May 8 through November 8. However, commissioner Dziak’s term expires on October 27 and barring nomina on and confirma on of new commissioners by that me, the agency will become inopera ve. Current regulatory authority In addi on to the quorum of only Republican commissioners, agency ac vi es are also posi vely constrained by several execu ve orders including that which requires the repeal of ten rules in order to promulgate a new rulemaking. In alignment with the administra on’s “America First” and “Made in America” agenda and priori es, the current commission is expected to priori ze its finite resources on surveillance and enforcement against imports of unsafe products, rather than on new rulemaking ac vity impac ng otherwise safe products. Future scenario(s) The future of the CPSC is unclear, at least during the tenure of the current presiden al administra on. The administra on’s current FY26 budget request holds CPSC funding flat but the agency is expected to reduce its staffing by 45 posi ons. Also included in the budget blueprint is a proposal to abolish the CPSC as an independent five-member commission and beginning in FY26 have its authority transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) where it would be overseen by a single administrator repor ng to Secretary Kennedy, and ul mately directly accountable to the President.
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