Washington (November 24, 2020) – Senators Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) released a new report from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) showing that the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is failing to protect American consumers.

 

The report found that CPSC is slow to respond to new cases and does not follow its own written policies for prioritizing high risk and dangerous products. GAO also found that, under the Trump administration, CPSC almost exclusively uses voluntary corrective actions instead of mandatory recalls, and more than half of companies who sign these voluntary corrective action plans are not consistently meeting their requirements. The report also found that CPSC has taken almost no enforcement actions against offending companies and that the number of civil penalties issued in the last two years was the lowest in a decade. CPSC staff reportedly told GAO that the dismal record is due to the Chair’s lack of interest in enforcement. 

 

The Senators called for the GAO investigation in April 2019 after a pattern emerged of CPSC favoring corporate interests over consumer safety. The investigation of CPSC decision-making explains its many failures in the last four years and confirms the Senators’ concerns.

 

“Under Trump’s leadership, CPSC has turned a blind eye to bad actors, putting consumers at risk,” said Senators Markey and Blumenthal, members of the Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee.  “Americans take for granted that products they use – from baby strollers, to bicycle helmets, to smoke detectors – are safe, but this important investigation by GAO calls all those beliefs into question, which should alarm us all. This report makes clear that CPSC needs new leadership who will end this era of corporate deference and take seriously the agency’s missions to keep all of us safe as we use everyday products.”

 

A copy of the full GAO report can be found HERE.

 

“Consumers expect that the products available for sale are safe and that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission will take steps to protect them and their families if that is not the case,” said Rachel Weintraub, legislative director and general counsel with Consumer Federation of America. “This GAO report documents that the CPSC has the tools and authority that it has not been using, but that the agency must use these tools to effectively fulfill its mission to protect consumers.”