The five-person U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) appeared before the House Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee in a hearing titled “The Fiscal Year 2025 Consumer Product Safety Commission Budget” on July 23, 2024. Consumer Federation of America and Kids In Danger submitted a letter for the record.

The Subcommittee hearing demonstrated the vital work CPSC engages in to protect the American public from unreasonable death or injury associated with consumer products. Notably, CPSC’s work on button cell batteries, safe infant sleep products, adult portable bedrails, and furniture stability protects some of the most vulnerable people in our communities.

A common refrain in the Commissioners’ testimony and lawmakers’ comments was budgetary constraints will have significant safety consequences for consumers and e-commerce poses a serious challenge. E-commerce is now central to how many American consumers interact with consumer products. For this reason, the CPSC’s eSAFE Team screened more than 3 million listings on websites and requested nearly 60,000 Internet site takedowns, resulting in removal of more than 57,000 listings for recalled or violative products during Fiscal Year 2023.

The rapid increase of e-commerce has driven a significant increase in purchases valued under $800, which can be imported into the U.S. and sent directly to the consumer with very little information available for authorities to interdict dangerous products. CPSC has stretched its budget for traditional port surveillance to expand inspections, and there are notable examples of this imperative work at our ports, such as the recent seizure of 1,500 children’s toys that violated federal safety standards in New York or the seizure of over 2,000 unsafe baby products at the Port of Los Angeles.  However, budgetary constraints will impact CPSC’s work in the future. For example, through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), CSPC received one-time funding and expanded port surveillance and inspections in collaboration with Customs and Border Protection. Unfortunately, the funding will be exhausted this year, impinging on the CPSC’s ability to protect consumers and their families from unsafe products. Complicating e-commerce matters further, there is little CPSC or consumers can do once dangerous products are imported into the U.S. and sent to the buyer. Foreign manufacturers selling products online often disappear after CPSC contacts them about a hazardous product, and consumers have almost no means for recourse.

The Subcommittee hearing underscored the critical safety work CPSC does to protect the American public. Consumer Federation of America calls on lawmakers to empower the CPSC’s vital safety work in the following ways:

• Online platforms must be accountable for their sellers. Consumers expect that the products they purchase online are just as safe as the products purchased at a physical store. As Chair Hoehn-Saric described in his testimony, online platforms are in the best position to ensure sellers are complying with safety requirements. Congress must act to ensure the safety of products sold online, especially products from third party sellers on online marketplaces.
• Provide adequate CPSC funding. CPSC cannot continue its lifesaving work without adequate resources. The vast majority of CPSC’s budget is spent on personnel. CPSC is already a small agency with a small workforce. Cutting the CPSC’s budget further will mean less people and less work, thereby negatively impacting the safety of consumers.
• Increase the statutory caps for CPSC’s civil penalties. Currently, the statutory caps on CPSC civil penalties – $100,000 per violation and $17,500,000 for multiple violations – are too low to reflect the gravity of violations or deter future bad behavior, especially for large corporations. The CAP Act will allow the CPSC latitude when it considers factors related to civil penalty assessments and ensure that civil penalty amounts reflect the severity of violations and deters future violations.
• Repeal Section 6(b) of the Consumer Product Safety Act. Section 6(b), 15 U.S.C. § 2055(b), a provision of the CPSA prohibits the CPSC from disclosing information about a consumer product that identifies a manufacturer or private labeler unless the CPSC has taken “reasonable steps” to assure that the information is accurate, the disclosure is fair and reasonably related to effectuating the purposes of the CPSC.  As such, the CPSC must provide the manufacturer or private labeler with an opportunity to comment on the accuracy of the information, and the CPSC may not disclose such information for at least 15 days after sending it to the company for comment. The reality, however, is that the process between the CPSC and manufacturers or private labelers often takes many years before the information can be disclosed to the public, if ever at all. The Sunshine in Product Safety Act would repeal this provision that places corporate profit over consumer safety.