Washington, D.C. - Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ) and Consumer Protection and Commerce Subcommittee Chair Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) wrote today to Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle expressing their concerns about a recent report showing that Buerkle coordinated with industry to delay or impede CPSC’s action on unsafe portable generators. In an email revealed in the Fair Warning report, Buerkle said she would share internal work product from another commissioner with industry stakeholders and that she was “attempting to discourage" her colleagues from asking a retailer to sell safer products.
CPSC acts as a regulator of the consumer product industry and fulfills its critical consumer protection role by developing product safety standards, policing the marketplace for unsafe products and enforcing recalls of dangerous products. The Commission is also authorized to pursue civil and criminal penalties against companies who manufacture, distribute, or sell unsafe products.
“The relationship between regulator and regulated should be arms-length to ensure impartiality and fair enforcement," Pallone and Schakowsky wrote to Buerkle. “Enlisting members of the industry to block agency action and offering to assist in their efforts undermines the integrity and effectiveness of CPSC and calls into question whether CPSC is effectively serving consumers."
Pallone and Schakowsky’s concerns were exacerbated by another email unearthed in the Fair Warning report. The email appeared to show CPSC inaction on portable generator carbon monoxide safety standards, due to a proclaimed “turf battle" with the Environmental Protection Agency, was orchestrated by industry lobbyists.
“This disingenuous and cynical tactic of delaying regulation by pitting two public health agencies against each other is appalling," Pallone and Schakowsky continued. “Regulated industries should be taking direction from CPSC, not the other way around."
To better understand the influence of industry on CPSC activities, Pallone and Schakowsky requested the following information by April 6:
* All communications between Buerkle or staff (both in the Chairman’s office and Commissioner offices as applicable) and any manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of a consumer product or representative thereof, or any trade group or voluntary standards organization regarding the establishment of, or CPSC action on, any consumer product safety standard, recall, or other corrective action.
* A detailed description of each time Buerkle or staff in the Chairman’s office (without a full vote of the Commission) has directed CPSC employees to cease work on, delay, impede, or otherwise modify work on a consumer product safety standard, recall, or other corrective action in a manner inconsistent with the recommendation of career staff, including the reasoning for such decision and whether Buerkle or staff discussed the matter with the affected manufacturer, distributor, or retailer of a consumer product, or any trade group, representative, or voluntary standards organization of such.
