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In July 2021, after more than five months of silence, President Biden finally announced his nominations for the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”), which includes Alexander Hoehn-Saric as Commissioner and Chairman Richard Trumka Jr. as. belonged to Commissioner and Mary T. Boyle as Commissioner.
The nominees
Hoehn-Saric is currently Chief Counsel for Communication and Consumer Protection at Haus Energie & Handel. Prior to that, he was Senior Counsel to the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where he oversaw and supported product safety and consumer protection. Trumka Jr. is currently General Counsel and Staff Director of the Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Reform. He works on oversight and research related to consumer protection, consumer product safety and public health. Boyle currently serves as the Executive Director of the CPSC and is involved in politics, administration, legal issues, budgets, product recalls, negotiation, rules and regulations, and government morale.
Hearings and permits
On July 28, 2021, the United States Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation (the “Senate Committee”) held a nomination hearing to review the presidential nominations of Hoehn-Saric, Trumka Jr., and Boyle. On September 22, 2021, the Senate committee held an executive meeting to further consider the nominations. On September 23, 2021, the Senate Committee approved the nominations of Hoehn-Saric as Commissioner and Chairman and Trumka Jr. as Commissioner. The nominations must now be approved by the entire Senate.
About the CPSC
The CPSC protects the public – primarily consumers and families – from the undue risk of injury or death associated with the use of consumer products that present a fire, electrical, chemical, or mechanical hazard. CPSC was established by the Consumer Product Safety Act (“CPSA”), codified in 15 USC §§ 2051-2089, which defined the authority of the CPSC and authorized the authority to develop standards and prohibitions, to set safety requirements for consumer products and to issue reminders possibly
Current composition of the CPSC
Robert S. Adler has been Commissioner of the CPSC since August 18, 2009 and was appointed by President Obama for a seven-year team in 2014. His term of office runs until October 2021. On October 1, 2019, he was appointed vice-chairman of the agency. Prior to joining the CPSC, Vice Chairman Adler taught in his capacity as Professor of Law at the University of North Carolina as Luther Hodges Jr., Scholar in Ethics and Law at the Kenan-Flagler Business School at Chapel Hill. He was the Assistant Dean of the MBA program and the Bachelor of Science in Business Administration Program. He also served for nearly a decade as a legal advisor to two commissioners of the CPSC and as an advisor to the Health and Environment Subcommittee of the US House of Representatives’ Energy and Trade Committee.
Current commissioners also include Dana Baiocco and Peter Feldman. Ms. Baiocco joined the CPSC on June 1, 2018. Ms. Baiocco was appointed by President Donald Trump for a seven-year term beginning retrospectively on October 27, 2017. Prior to CPSC, Ms. Baiocco was a partner at Jones Day and a member of the firm’s Business and Delict Litigation Practice. She advised clients on questions of risk reduction, compliance with regulatory and reporting obligations, warranties and product recalls and led litigation in cartel, construction and insolvency matters. Mr. Feldman was also nominated and reappointed by President Trump and confirmed by the Senate for another seven-year term, which expires in October 2026. He began serving as a commissioner on October 5, 2018. Feldman served as Senior Counsel on the Senate Committee, where he advised on consumer protection, product safety, data security and privacy issues and conducted oversight and investigations for the CPSC.
CPSC currently has two vacant seats, with another opening in October this year when Acting Chairman Robert S. Adler’s term ends.
Development of the composition of the CPSC
The addition of Hoehn-Saric and Trumka, Jr. – two Democratic commissioners – will lead to two developments. This is the first time since 2019 that the CPSC has a full list of five commissioners. Furthermore, the approval would end the same CPSC divide between political parties with what is now a 3-2 split between Democrats and Republicans. A shift in the political structure of the CPSC will most likely lead to stricter regulation and a possible increase in recalls and civil sanctions. While the public can rely on agency protection from dangerous products, consumer product manufacturers should stand ready to maintain enhanced compliance programs and pay civil or criminal penalties if they discover potential product hazards that pose an inappropriate or significant risk of serious injury or death.
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