Last week President Trump nominated Interim Chair Ann Marie Buerkle for the position of Chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Chairwoman Buerkle will serve a seven year term beginning in October, 2017. We expect this will start the swing of the CPSC from Democratic control to Republican control. Marietta Robinson’s term is up in October of this year and it is expected that the President will replace her with another Republican commissioner.
What can you expect? Well we know that Chairwoman Buerkle recently directed the Commission to issue a request for information for “suggestions for ways the Commission could potentially reduce burdens and costs of its existing rules, regulations, or practices without harming consumers.” Written comments are due by September 20, 2017. We expect that Chairwoman Buerkle will be focusing the Commission’s efforts on the importance of self-regulation in the industry and less on high dollar and high profile penalties.