It’s time for common sense to return to the Consumer Product Safety Commission

More than a year into the Trump administration there is one government agency that is continuing to push the Obama administration’s excessive regulatory agenda: The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). CPSC, which regulates over 15,000 products worth billions of dollars to the American economy each year, continues to be controlled by three Democratic commissioners because the Senate has been slow to approve two new Republican nominees. The reason is that Senate Democrats continue to block and/or slow dozens of presidential nominations by insisting on a cloture vote which requires 30 hours of debate. 

While Democratic senators continue to block the CPSC nominations, the Democrats on the CPSC Commission are using their majority to push an activist, anti-business agenda in the guise of “safety.” I’m familiar with this agenda, as I fought against it for three years when I served as a CPSC commissioner. I witnessed this same excessive overregulation by my fellow majority Democrats that did not improve product safety, but instead undermined businesses (causing hundreds of small companies to close their doors), reduced the choice American consumers have in the market, raised prices and actually made some products less durable.

{mosads}Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle is currently fighting a lonely fight to bring some common sense to the CPSC. She is being attacked by the left for expressing her desire to base rulemaking on actual data and not on emotional considerations, special interest demands or rhetoric. This is hardly controversial. I fought to have CPSC become more data-driven and often opposed decisions that were based on emotions. Buerkle has rightly stated that the role of the CPSC is “to protect consumers from unreasonable risk. It is not to use threats of rulemaking and compliance investigations to bully industry into doing what we want. Our policy decisions and agency actions should address actual risks and be driven by sound science and data.”

In the past two months the Democratic commissioners have pushed through rules that are based on a view that consumers are incapable of making good decisions for themselves and their families. The most egregious example happened earlier this month, when all three Democrats on the commission voted to sue the makers of the popular BOB jogging stroller for the company’s refusal to recall strollers made before September 2015.

Mind you, there is no defect in these products. The stroller has a quick release front wheel like a bicycle that consumers have enjoyed using for convenience for decades. The removable wheel allows the consumer to fit the stroller in a trunk. Well, the Democrats on the Commission want to end this convenience because some consumers don’t read the instructions and fail to secure the quick release mechanism or used the stroller with the swivel wheel unlocked. That could lead to the wheel falling off. Clearly, it’s a consumer use issue, not a defect, and now CPSC will drag the company through the courts for years. Even if BOB wins the case in court, the company will bear the enormous cost of this litigation while the government will use taxpayers dollars to pursue the case.

This excessive regulation also is evident in the Democratic commissioners’ attempts to expand their jurisdiction by regulating flame retardant chemicals in furniture, an issue that is more appropriately managed by the Environment Protection Agency. CPSC staff produced a report with the recommendation that CPSC terminate the agency’s rulemaking in this area. The three Democratic commissioners overruled the staff and voted to ban the chemicals, and then published a guidance to retailers insisting that they don’t sell products with the chemicals. However Federal law requires that products pass an open flame test which can only be met using these flame retardants. The result: needless costs incurred by a confused business community and nothing that improves product safety.

To enhance product safety, there needs to be a partnership between CPSC and the regulated community that encourages early reporting of potential hazards and a commitment to ensure the safest products possible. 

The paternalistic view that consumers must be protected from imaginary risks that results in over-regulation and destroys businesses is one reason why Republicans swept into the White and majorities in both houses of Congress. The Senate should confirm the CPSC nominees to bring common sense regulations back to CPSC.

Anne Northup represented Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District from 1997 to 2007. She served as CPSC commissioner from 2009 to 2012.