Transcripts For CSPAN3 Consumer Product Safety Commissioners Testify Before Senate Commerce 20240714

Round of questions. We expect you to answer them fully and to the best of your ability. The commission is fully formed and five members. According to that commission, deaths and injuries and Property Damage if incidents stemming from Consumer Product cost the nation more than a trillion dollars. Thats an economic cost, the cost to human beings and lives and families is even much more and unknowable. You have a mandate to protect consumers from risks associated with 15,000 Consumer Products including household products, toys, Sporting Goods and more. They were established by the safety act in 1972. The jurisdictionally independent agency chargesen with forcing various federal statutes geared at protecting consumers. Central to the commissions function is the use of voluntarily Consumer Product standards instead of mandatory regulations, requirements when appropriate. This approach allows the agency to have a collaborative working relationship with consumer advocacy groups, manufacturers, importers, retailers and other stake holders which increases the flow of data driven decisions. While the commission is a relatively small agency, the influence is felt across the country and our economy. I look forward to hearing about your initiatives and rulemaking agenda. In 2017, we held a hearing to examine the effectiveness of the Virginia Green baker pool and spa safety act which enhanced the safety of public and private pools and spaz and reducing drownings. While this law had a positive impact on improving pool safety, they published a report this past may indicating the total number of drownings in 2016 and the total number of drownings in 2015 including instances involving very young children. I hope the commission today will provide recommendations on what else can be done to prevent the tragic deaths. The efforts to keep pace with the increasingly Technology Economy will continue to be critical aspect of the agencys effectiveness. As unauthorized disclosures of confidential information is in the public and private sectors including the cpsc, heightened attention to resources and staffing are dedicated to protecting such information is clearly necessary. For these purposes, the Ranking Member and i introduce the cpsc chief Information Officer parody act which ensure the agencys top i. T. Expert has significant roles in the Commission Decision making process for budget and personnel purposes. In addition, it would authorize the commission to bring a chief data officer and a chief technologyist to support such efforts and protect the agencys systems from vulnerabilities. As the fourth of july approaches, id like an update on the commission on an issue we discussed so many times in public setting and in private mettings. Firework devices. Thank you to the commissioner and the other three and dana bacio and elliott cane for speaking to the subcommittee today on issues that impact our nation. Our nations consumers. Following tuesdays news of withdrawing her pending nomination, id like to thank acting chairman merkel for her dedicated Public Service on the commission for the past six years. And as the acting chairman for the past 2 1 2 years. Her leadership is commendable. With that, i will turn to the Ranking Member of the full committee. Thank you, chairman, for holding this oversight hearing and for the commission being here. The Consumer Product Safety Commission is a small federal agency with a huge mission. It is to be the cop on the beat when protecting consumers from potentially dangerous products. Time and time again though over the last two years, ive seen a pattern with the commission where it is deferred to the industry on critical product safety matters instead of being more aggressive as a commission. From the get go, almost all of the consumer commissions pending product rule makings were determine natured. For instance, instead of setting mandatory standards for Window Blinds to protect kids if cord strangulation, they set their own standard. Another rule involves shut off switches for portable generators which are commonly used after a power failure is caused by hurricanes or winter storms that we get in the pacific northwest. The xwen rateors propose a Carbon Monoxide poisoning threat. The portable Generator Manufacturers Association to write their own standards. The failures have not just been with the Safety Standards intended to protect against dangerous products. Also, the Consumer Product Safety Commission initially essentially stopped imposing Civil Penalties on manufacturers. I think two recent examples highlight a trend that is very problematic. First involved the bob jobbing stroller. The Consumer Product Safety Commission found a serious defect in the stroller that allowed the front wheel to detatch unexpectedly. Those detatchments caused serious injuries. Some on the Commission Voted to move forward with a lawsuit against the manufacturer. But instead the commission sought a settlement with the company that resulted in little more than a Public Safety campaign and provided certain consumers with replacement parts. Other consumers with older models got nothing more than a 20 coupon on the stroller. The second is the infant sleeper. According to the Consumer Product report, 35 instant deaths have been associated with this product since 2009. The commission did not reveal this information until a Consumer Reports blue the whistle and brought it to the public. So who knows how many more children could have been impacted. Even if the product was recalled, the Commission Found a way to continue to fail the consumer when it the commissions recall notice listed just refund as the remedy for consumers. So consumers will only get a voucher for another and so this is very problematic. We have a tradition on the committee of working together to inact Bipartisan Legislation to help protect consumers and the Consumer Product Safety Improvement act of 2008 which was signed into law by george bush gave the Consumer Product Safety Commission substantial new authority to protect consumers. So Going Forward, i hope that the white house will put forth names to put American Consumers an our Children First when protecting them with these laws. I thank the chairman, hike forward to hearing from the commissioners. Ranking member, thank you very much for joining us today. And senator bloom entienthal is expected to join us shortly. Lets begin with the testimony. We begin with the acting chairman. Thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Thank you distinguished members of the committee. Im pleased to discuss the Good Progress being made at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. As you know, earlier this week i announced minute tension to step down as the acting chairman and kmeet only my current term as a member of the commission. I feel honored for the opportunity to have served as a commissioner for the cpsc since 2013. And as the acting chairman for 2 1 2 years. My respect for this agency, its mission, and most importantly for the staff has grown with each and every year i have been with the cpsc. Throughout my time i led with integrity and principle. Ill always, always with our Safety Mission above mikz. Im incredibly and proud of the accomplishments achieved during my tenure and deeply appreciate the support and excellent work by the cpsc staff. Together we have taken many actions that save lives every day including initiating a multipronged approach on strengthening furniture tipover Safety Standards and enforcement. Eliminating window cords in 80 of the market to prevent child strangulation. Educating people on the dangers of carbon monday oxize poisoning and facilitating portal generator standards, resulting in safer products being available today as we speak in the marketplace. Dispersement of grants. Approval 14 new or revised mandatory standards, many for children and infant products. Leading cpscs effort to address the safety of the internet of things, including the formation of an Interagency Working Group led by the cpsc. Jumpstarting a process to improve and modernize safer products. We have tried tone hans the organization and prioritization of staff as well as resources. The work we have done and the continues to occur will help that the cpsc is equipped to succeed in a rapidly changing global marketplace where the types of products and how consumers buy and interact with those products is constantly evolving. Engagement with our stake holders has been a priority for me. They improve safer products. And we were able to make the very next day. Others were examining and have put forth funds in our midyear to fund that project. To better understand the products we regulate, i asked staff to hold several tech to tech meetings. These meetings help our staff, understand how products in real world situations and help regulated industries understand the concerns of our staff and the issues that manufacturers need to address. No group is more influential. The courage, resolve and desire to ensure that no other parent, relative or loved one has to suffer the tragedy that they faced has helped me to never lose sight of the importance of the cpsc mission and its effect on americans. The effort of parents who lost children to furniture tipovers is why i have been called for a tougher standard for these products. These achievements could not have been approved about it staff. However, they need the proper resources to do their job. As you have heard me say again and again, cpsc needs more resources. Cpscs mission has long dwarfed its budget. Im proud that the advocacy for the agency has resulted in providing increased funding in the houses current mark of 135. 5 million. My hope as i depart this trend continues and the budget is finally to be able to be on par with its critical mission. Following my departure, my hope is that staff and the commission will build upon the successes of my tenure as i have sought to build on the legacies of those who came before me. I hope my efforts to put politics aside and make principle Decision Making will continue. Making civility and robust engagement a priority. And i hope it is an agency that continues to leverage the expertise and knowledge of our staff to advance Safety Measures for consumers everywhere. My life has always been an advocacy and health care and Public Service. I believe my time at cpsc has been a culmination of a lifetime of advocacy. I want to say here this morning it has been an honor to serve both the obama and the trump administrations to protect americans and keep their families safe. Thank you again, chairman moran for the opportunity to be here today and i do look forward to answering any questions that you might have. Thank you. Chairwoman, thank you for your testimony and for your Public Service. Mr. Adler . Good morning. Im pleased to be here to discuss an agency that ive been associated with in some fashion since the opening in 1973 and where ive been a commissioner since august of 2009. At the outset, id like to say a few words about my colleague and friend, acting chairman. Id like to thank her for her service in what is often an exceedingly difficult job and id like to commend her for her grace under pressure. Of course, my affection and respect for her do not mean that she and i share the same regulatory philosophy or view of policy approaches far from it. But i think shes an excellent role model for disagreeing without being disagreeable if her fair and respectful treatment of staff serves as an example for us all. Turning to my remarks, cpsc the smallest health and Safety Agency in the federal government with the current funding level of just 127 million and a staff of 539 people. Let me put our budget in perspective. Our Sister Agency fda recently asked for an increase in its budget, increase in its budget that is five times what our entire budget is. Notwithstanding our modest budget, our jurisdictional scope as the chairman said is extremely broad encompassing 15,000 product categories. This october will mark the 47th anniversary of the passage of the landmark Consumer Product safety act. Looking back, i believe that congress and the agency should take great pride in what we accomplished especially given the immense scope of our mission. Among our many achievements, i would like to note the dra the maic drop over the years in death and injuries to children from Consumer Products. To say the least, that does not mean our work is done. But i think it does mean we made major progress. Despite this progress, much of our work is stimied by several statutory roadblocks. When the agency was established in 1973, we promulgated numerous critical safety rules dealing with hazards that ranged from flammable childrens sleep wear, shattering glass pains and unsafe toys and we did it under the traditional rulemaking approaches in the Administration Procedure act. The agency wrote 24 safety rules in the first eight yoeears or three per year. Congress imposed a set of procedures on cpsc and have had the infect of stalling and lengthening our rulemaking efforts. In the following 38 years since 1981, we managed to get only 10 safety rules under these procedures and thats about one every 3 1 2 years versus three per year. We really only one safety rule using the procedures in the past ten years. Let me be blunt. I have little doubt that lives have been lost and injuries incurred because of these delays in our rulemaking. With no particular improvement in the quality of the standards that we write. While im discussing parts of the statute that id like to see reformed, id also must mention the onerous information disclosure restrictions under which cpsc must operate. I refer to the provisions of section 6 b. Unlike any other federal health and Safety Agency when cpsc wants to warn consume berzrs ab hazard, we first have to run our press release past the company to see whether they have any objections to it. And especially in recalls that, Means Companies can object to our proposed hazard warning and threat tone sue us unless staff waters down the release. Imagine a product where a dozen consumers have died and the company doesnt want us to include that fact in the release. Put yourself in the shoes of staff who need to balance a timely warning against a threat of delays brought about by litigation and you can see the dilemma that staff is often faced with. I think you can see we have a problem. Id like to mention one final point in my testimony and thats a concern i have about a Vulnerable Group of which im a proud member and that is senior citizens. We make up about 13 of the population but we account for roughly 65 of the Consumer Product related deaths. And we are a rapidly growing demographic. Far and away the greatest product related hazard for seniors is falls. 75 of the fatalities that we suffer. We also suffer disproportionately from fires, seniors are nearly four time as likely to die in a home fire as the general population. And there are numerous other products where seniors suffer disproportionate injuries and death. I urge you to consider measures that would help with the serious challenges that seniors face in the coming years. Thank you very much for your attention and i look forward to any questions you have. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner biaco . Good morning. Thank you for inviting me to this hearing. I think it is a very big responsibility to discuss with all of you the performance of the agency and indeed a frank evaluation of the agencys performance is the first step to ensuring that the agency is operating effectively, given the complex and fast paced issues in todays Consumer Product safety world. The agency ask and must do more to facilitate the mission in this global economy. First, we must enhance the agency as a whole to better serve the consumer. To do this the Commission Must commit immediately to three investments that make the agency more nimble and effective. One is improved equipment, two, specialized personnel to revamp the agencys technology, data capabiliti capabilities and hazard identification systems. So chairman moran, the proposed bill is a welcomed piece of legislation. Third, we need a robust plan tore testing and evaluating emerging technologies and the products in general. Given the speed to which products enter the market. The ease to which they get into consumers homes and the complexity of the Global Supply chain which includes products that do not comply with the safety rules and starred ardz, real action must be taken to keep this agency relevant. We must transition the cpsc into a forward looking agency rather than a reactive one. To illustrate, there is a great demand right now for the production of more sustainable products, to the extent that sustainable includes recycles or reused products, the demand does not interdirectly undo safety advancements that the agency worked long and hard to achieve. They should be study you now and not reacting to such pitfalls. Second, the agency must be purposeful in the regulatory activities. Rulemaking, of course, is the key to the cpscs charge. But the agency must do a better job with this authority. When the agency promulgates a safety rule, it should do so swiftly and decisively, have a sound legal basis and scientific reason to do so. It serve noes purpose to force a rule that does not solve or at least all Agency Actions must be credible and rationally relatable to the house or before it inconsistent with the rule of law. They should not support any process that meets a standard. The cpsc should be the Gold Standard in engineering, testing, and problemsolvings. Our Compliance Team should accept and capitalize on opportunities where we share some testing results and roadmap for successful programs. And us versus them mentality will impede Good Solutions and interfere with strong stakeholder relationships. I have worked on individual initiatives. For example i have pushed for and the agency has a mobile friendly recall up. This initiative is one way the agency is closing the gap between the way of works and the way todays consumer operates. Communication is a major key to success. My office is committed to working with the ecommerce. I have open discussions with several hosts about directory called notice and ways to better liaise with experts studying Consumer Behavior the agency may benefit from. My research has revealed that knockoffs and other brand copycat products make a deep pool of noncompliant goods oppose real safety risks. The import Surveillance Team as well as a baby are working assembly hard and effectively to stop the inflow of these noncompliant products. They have developed an excellent and critical relationship with u. S. Customs and Border Protection agencies and they should allocate more resources to these efforts so they may expand on that good work. My goal is to ensure they are employing best practices and all that we do. It has been a challenging and rewarding experience and i appreciate this opportunity to testify and discuss Going Forward how the agency can achieve its mission. I would like to join chairman moran and thinking and congratulating annemarie on her contributions to the wins. She has served all of us with distinction. Her greatest accomplishment however has been the respect and admiration she has received from every staff member at the cpsc. Annemarie, congratulations. Thank you and good morning. I want to begin my remarks by thinking chairman moran and making member blumenthal and the subcommittee for providing me with this opportunity today. I want to think the career staff at cpsc who are the lifeblood of our agency and the front lines of our efforts to protect American Consumers. It has been a privilege to serve under chairman burkle since my confirmation last october. I want to echo the sentiments expressed today and annemarie has a long career of Public Service including her work as a nurse and assistant attorney general, member of congress and an advocate for American Children and families. It has been a pleasure to work with her and she will be missed. I am really terribly new to cpsc. In that respect its good to be back. As a Senate Staffer i worked directly with many of you on oversight matters and therefore i understand the important function that hearings like this serve. I come with a deep understanding of the congressional intent. Also its duties and limitations under the law. I am pleased to see some new faces on the dais. I look forward to work with all of you Going Forward and i hope to be a resource to you and your staff. When i last testified i was asked an important question. Is cpsc fulfilling its mission. My view is that we are doing many things well. There were areas in which we are making progress but there were others were we could do more to protect americans from dangerous products. My priority is to advance the mission through inclusiveness and compromise. I am most proud of the opportunities i have had to collaborate on bipartisan solutions. These include bipartisan support to increase transparency in the form of an open meeting for the budget requests. The first such meeting in recent memory and a tradition i hope we will continue. We have advanced the number of amendments with bipartisan support including Data Collection expertise. And to accelerate a mandatory for furniture tebow verse. More work is needed but i am encouraged by this process. During my confirmation hearing i laid out a number of priorities i felt would achieve the commissions goal of protecting consumers from unreasonable risks associated with Consumer Products including modernizing the processing capabilities to support the agencys enforcements, standards, and regulatory work. As a general matter, cpsc must advance safety and the regulated communities with transparency and clarity by their expectations. These remain critical priorities and necessary for the mission and our work here remains ongoing. And to further the goal of modernizing the commission i am excited cpsc has an Interagency Working Group along with our sister agencies. To tackle issues pertaining to the internet of things and connective devices. We took steps to identify funds to create an ilt research lab at our testing center. While this process is in its early stages, it is an Exciting Development and an investment in the agencys knowledge and understanding of new technologies integrated. Marken be done to close the Agency Skills gap. I am pleased the agency voted to accept our proposal to hire a chief data officer. I believe the commission should explore staff expertise as many of our sister agencies have done successfully. I have maintained an open door and encourage all stakeholders to share their concerns with me. This applies to consumer groups, companies, individual consumers and i have urged staff to work to implement the new regulations we are working on expeditiously and i will continue to do so. I look forward to our efforts to keep American Consumers safe and thank you again for the opportunity to appear before you today. Commissioner k. Good morning, chairman moran. Thank you for holding this critical oversight hearing of the United States Consumer Party commission. As my colleagues have said that cpsc is a tiny agency compared with our sister federal health and safety agencies. Accordingly we run a lean operation and provide an excellent return on investment. When the cpsc is at our best we are using our resources in full authorities as a federal Regulatory Agency to drive voluntary and mandatory standards and development to make consumers safer. When the cpsc is at its best, we are leading the charge to end hazards like furniture tipping over and killing young children, infants suffocating and and safe sleep environments, and toddlers strangling on dangerous cords. When the cpsc is at our best, we are trying to recall dangerous products and using a Litigation Authority when necessary. We are assessing and pursuing Civil Penalties as appropriate to deter bad actors. When the cpsc is at our best we are anticipating with technological innovations. I believe our staff can do all of these things and i have seen them do it. Whether you have seen a too, we are all safer because of the cpsc staff. Even at our best, we still need help. For that we desperately need additional authorities and Adequate Funding. While this is not an exhaustive list, we need revisions to our statute to get rid of hurdles. We need enhanced authorities to get dangerous products recalled and off the market quickly. We need Additional Authority so we can assess to provide products from reaching the stream of commerce and the anticonsumer safety, anti[ indiscernible audio cutting out ] to be eliminated so we can provide the public with vital product Safety Information in a timely manner. As i stated during our House Oversight meeting, people die because of section 60. It is that simple. We also desperately need more resources. I know this is not an appropriations hearing but our current budget is just not enough. It is amazing to me how underfunded consumer safety is. With congresses support for additional authorities, Adequate Funding and robust oversight we can stay true to our Safety Mission. Before closing id like to commend cpsc acting for her years of dedicated service to the american people. She has spent her entire life in service to others. While we differ greatly on policy and philosophy, we have agreed on the importance of representing the agency and is great staff for civility and i look forward to continuing to work with her and continuing to call her a lifelong friend. Thank you again for the invitation to speak to you about the cpsc and life saving work undertaken by our staff. Commissioner, thank you. Im going to as the Ranking Member if he has an Opening Statement and then we will go to questions and answers. Thank you, chairman moran and thank you for your understanding in my absence due to a Judiciary Committee member with folks on judicial nominees. I am pleased to be here and think the commissioners for being here as well and thanks for the opportunity for this Opening Statement. As a number of you is indeed a small agency with a small budget, but enormous responsibilities and i agree completely that that budget deserves more support. It literally can make a difference between life and death for countless of our citizens and particularly are children. I am deeply concerned about in action and mishandling of complaints i have seen on a number of product safety issues especially involving the deaths of the infants. In my view the cpsc may be making a habit of sitting on evidence of dangerous and deadly products and taking action only after there is widespread Media Coverage and ensuing public outrage. I will give you an example. Only thanks to Consumer Reports and the journalists there to the public learn of the fisherprice rock and play dangers in the 42 babies that have died since the product was first introduced in 2009. The consumerproducts reports revealed nothing that was not already known to this agency. They knew about the product killing babies. They had all the data on these deaths. And i would like to know why the cpsc remained inert and an active and did nothing on these data for so long. A National Nonprofit dedicated to protecting children released a report that found the number of recalls reached a record low since they started tracking this data in 2001. I worry about the products out there right now that the public has no knowledge of impose danger to children and others. What would normally be called a recall, which is a term the public will understands, are now being replaced by using it sounds like an Information Campaign. That term is confusing to the public. They do not understand all of the meaning of those terms even though they may have meaning to the cpsc. And so that is what has happened in the case of the jogging strollers. They resulted in reports of babies being flipped over and bashing their teeth on curbs and bleeding from injury. Too often they settle for an adequate voluntary standards. They do nothing to protect consumers. And these are crafted with gigantic loopholes. They benefit the industry and they are based on is substantiated data. Another example is the standard for Window Coverings. It creates a confusing dichotomy in which stock Window Coverings must meet standards to protect children from the risk of strangulation but custom Window Coverings do not have to meet that standard. The industry says they cover 80 of the market but im skeptical about the market data supporting that. We see time and time again the Industry Driving the standards, the conversation, the debate and in effect, setting those standards and they will cut corners and go the cheapest route leaving consumers vulnerable. And that is why when it comes to protecting our most vulnerable i believe that they should be consistent with the longstanding recommendation by medical experts and pediatricians the baby should only sleep on firm flat surfaces with no extra bedding. I introduced the safe sleep act of 2019 that would be an the sale, manufacturer and import of sleep products that may pose dangers and finally, i am concerned with the cpsc giving manufacturers and retailers a free pass and cutting back on Civil Penalties and setting them too low to create a meaningful deterrent threat. Last year the cpc issued only three Civil Penalties settlements down from six in 2016 and 2017. In short, i trust the cpsc to do its job which is to keep dangerous products off the market and believe a product will not be sold online or store shelves if it is in safe and if they fail and their responsibility consumers are portrayed. I look forward to making sure that the cpsc remains a strong watchdog for all americans, especially our youngest the most vulnerable. Thank you very much. I will remind folks we have foes beginning at 11 30. I will hold everyone to the five minute rule. I am interested in specific consumer issues but i also think we sometimes fail in the quest of pursuing things are most interested in we fail to look at the broader picture about the structure of the agency. Im happy to have that conversation during this question and answer period. Id like to start with one for chairman burke old ive had conversations since coming to this about fireworks. The fourth of july is around the corner. I have been interested in the rulemaking efforts as the standard determination that your test that has been controversial and inconsistent in its application and so i want to give you the opportunity to update me and the committee on the agencys activities with respect to fireworks. Unfortunately we do not have consensus on how to proceed. The choices would be to bring it up and perhaps have a be defeated. I think there is feeling among the commissioners that does not address safety issues. The platform, yes but other aspects of the proposed rule do not. I think the issue for industry is the uncertainty on how we will proceed. Ive talked about this with many members of the senate with regards to insanity about a way forward. Possibly it would be defeated but there would be certainty that nothing new will be happening until we perhaps propose another rule that would allow us to maybe more robustly address the safety hazards. Is that decision pending . Yes. We can bring it up. We can bring it up at any time and discuss it. The concern i have heard from some of my colleagues is that it does not affect safety. Since yesterday ive had two senators reach out to me and the interest in this has grown. In the failure to bring up and pass or defeat the proposal, what is the status of the regulation of the industry today . Today the proposed rule is just that. It has not been finalized. The status quo remains. Chairman, buerkle, i understand that you requested that the office of Inspector General investigate the facts of undisclosed information from the National Injury clearinghouse. What that investigation remains ongoing, would you explain what steps have been taken that led to this disclosure including any consultation with outside experts and law enforcement. Thank you for this opportunity to talk about this. We are referring to an inadvertent disclosure and unfortunately some of the safeguards wasnt laid on and reviewed the outgoing information. That has been changed. Ever since we became aware of this issue it goes through our office where there is a higher level of scrutiny. At the time the disclosure began as well as a change in software, those contributing factors resulted in this very unfortunate situation. The agency has made it a priority to get to the bottom of it and the ig is doing a thorough investigation and we look forward to his findings and the determination on whether or not we need to proceed and perhaps refer it elsewhere for criminal activity. Will you confirm to me that you will keep me and the subcommittee informed of the developments . Absolutely. I have made it clear to staff im available at any time to come appear and present person or have consultations. It is something i am committed to. Thank you very much. At the commissions recent midyear meeting you introduced from other federal agencies including the fbi and doj to assist with the response into the investigation of the unauthorized disclosure. The cpsc is in over his head on this type of situation. We are a small agency with limited resources and we are trying to get our arms around our own data. This was a large disclosure that i am not convinced was inadvertent. I have not been able to link the information that one out the door with requests for the information. I wanted that to be looked into a little bit more. I did not believe that the agency had enough time, enough experience or a staff that had expertise in this area. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for bringing up this issue of wanting to have a broader discussion as well as focused and discussion. I think when the commission comes before the committee, even though i believe in a robust subcommittee level, anytime it should be in front of the whole committee. These are issues of mammoth importance to consumers and we need to make sure they are getting the attention of everyone to participate. This is about the bright light of day and we want to make sure that that is known at least from our perspective. To the stroller issue, we requested documents further explaining why the room, they knew of 200 incidents related to the stroller including serious injuries because of front will detachments. In late september the cpsc staff did a presentation listing a litany of injuries that could occur. They stated the commission should push for a recall. We know the rest of the history that that didnt happen. I am all for the latest and greatest technology and i am all for consumers having more information, but there is a difference between pushing and pulling and how you get information out to people and when you need to do a recall. Do you think this campaign remedy was a good enough protection for consumers . What else should we have been doing . No, i did not i put out a statement with commissioner adler explaining her concerns to the point you are making the consumers for not being given the full remedy and not being given the kind of information they needed. I thought it an excellent proof of why this was such a failure and that we had recognized ahead of time it would be a failure and was reported by the Washington Post when one of the retail is required to receive notice had been sent an email by the company apparently looked at it and decided since it did not have the word recall and it it wasnt worth doing anything about. That is exactly what we were worried about. If safety was the companys priority this was an action indicative of trying to protect its own customers. Commissioner adler, did you want to add anything to that . I concur completely with commissioner k. This is what we call the aggressively misleading. It was very unfortunate and one of the reasons that this recall is turning out to be less successful. One of the other concerns was that these are products on the market for roughly 8 teen years but it only addressed about six years. Why two thirds of the products were left out. This is why the challenges if youre not clear emphasize and dont get the information out to the consumer by saying its that serious it is very problematic. We should be very clear about what the role is. What happened in may 2018 regarding the deaths in the sleeper products for infants . There were 32 deaths related to that. Can you tell us what went wrong or other other products that we have been notified on . I would take a first address at that and honestly section 16, we cannot simply say weve got this number of deaths associated with the product and we have to make a determination that the Public Health and safety gets an immediate notice. I think part of it was, and i blame myself in part for this, there wasnt as much of a recognition of this growing problem and id like to commend commissioner kaye for being a strong voice about pursuing the issue. If it hadnt been for him, i dont think i wouldve paid as much attention so i give him a lot of credit for that. Thank you, senator. I am happy to answer that as well. I think that frankly we failed the American Public on this one. By early 2017 a Critical Mass of deaths had come to our attention. 6b was a factor in as not reporting but we couldve done a lot then. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Thank you for serving and for the testimony here today. Chairman buerkle, id like to ask about the recent data breach. Can you explain how the agency, i know youve explained this before the committee, but if you could explain one more time how the agency has worked to resolve this and specifically who did the cpsc contact following the breach . Have you consulted and work with other agencies and have you been able to determine if the entities who received an author writes data have taken appropriate steps to destroy that . The disclosure issue as i was recounting has been taken with the utmost seriousness by the agency. The executive director and her staff prioritized and the various stages as to how they would handle this. The immediate concern was stopping anymore breaches which they did and immediately. Any request goes to the office which has the expertise needed and will be reviewed by lawyers. The department of justice was contacted almost immediately. We were concerned about our remedies. I am pleased to say of the 36 entities the information was disclosed to, 30 have certifies the section of that information in one large disclosure is pending, that certification is pending. We have gotten back much of the information disclosed inadvertently. Id like to emphasize something about the Inspector General. That is not the cpsc. That is some confusion in the Inspector General is doing an independent investigation apart from any of the cpsc staff. It is delving into this issue i believe he has the expertise at this point to complete his investigation and to make sure and be able to tell us what are the appropriate next steps or whether it was truly inadvertent. Is not that im opposed to calling and someone else but the Inspector General has to do what he does best and thats a thorough investigation. I have a question. We have a rural state and im always carping about that in this committee about her lack of broadband connectivity. A lot of us have this issue in our states. As you are looking at recall some product warnings, how do you meet that challenge of an elderly population, people buying used products a lot or trading product for other things, and the lack of connectivity. Are you relying on that . Id like to open it up to the panel. Are there any comments on that . I appreciate the question and understand the concern you are raising. We know that direct notice recalls are the most effective recall where a manufacturer or retailer can reach the consumer directly and provide information about the health and safety notice. A letter or what ever. But i understand how the connectivity issue in a rural state complicates that. We have been taking a look at additional Tech Knowledge he to improve the traceability of products to the supply chain from manufacturer to retail to the secondary mark it. That is probably somewhat a ways off but offer a huge benefit with respect to traceability and the ability to figure out exactly who has a product at any given time. But in the meantime, it remains a challenge relying on traditional modes of transportation. We have an office of communications and for instance one of the things we just did, you raise the issue with drowning. I spent half a day doing interviews that will reach millions of people both radio and television. We do organize campaigns to get the word out. To your point, not everyone has connectivity and we must rely on more traditional ways of getting information out. Did you want to speak to that . I am actually from the ohio valley. Im very familiar with the area. I think you raise a couple of good points on the secondary sales and that is the neighborhood we are from. And so i think, everyone works on the phone now, even my mother has a phone and an ipad and so forth. Getting a recall of together where they can think somebody who has the information i think its very important. I would like to see the cpsc have a full complement or department if you will of people whether it is the old fashion way to pick up the phone and call marys resale store and say do you have this product . I think we could use a small army of people reaching out in as many ways as possible. We have different types of markets and different types of resale. Third parties platforms and so forth. I would like to see us put a little bit more effort into that. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Chairman buerkle where the cpsc aware of the fatalities with the fisher rock and play product before Consumer Reports published the data . Absolutely, sir. A report or a story is an issue the agency has been working on. We were adair of deaths since 2009 and we began to pick up 2011. This occurred somewhat before my time is chairman, however, we immediately with the executive director and her office work diligently once this issue became a Critical Mass where it came to the point where we needed to do something. We put out a generic warning at that time and hopefully get the parties to the table. Is a rainy commissioner who wasnt aware of these deaths and why didnt you warn earlier . What was the Critical Mass of infant death . The issue was complex because of the mitigating factors if there was an unsafe sleep environment. Pillows, blankets in the crib, some of the babies were compromised. It is identify what the hazard was in when we dead, it is a multipronged process and i think we are headed in the same direction as your safe sleep backed. Did 6b prevent the cpsc from acting sooner . I do not believe so. I think we took immediate action once a got to the point where it did and it is a multi prong approach. We will be terminating the proposed rule right now. I hope my colleagues will join me in getting that terminated immediately so we can address the hazard you were speaking of. With regard to the safe sleep backed, when it comes to establishing standards, can you commit you will support standards that are consistent with the best practices agreed on by consumer advocates and experts . Yes, i have had conversations with those in the Safety Community and know exactly their feelings and their beliefs and how they should be addressed. Dont you agree that the public is better informed when you use the word recall rather than Information Campaign . Especially when products are sold secondhand on the internet. I think you are absolutely correct. A recall is clear however, our recalls, mostly all of our recalls are voluntary. Whenever we put out a press release, the parties have agreed to that and the language in it. In this situation the decision was made and we need to get this information out and rather than be in long litigation as in other cases, the consumer ends up with no remedy. The lawsuit itself is a warning to consumers. A public act. It raises the issue but it is unclear what the remedy is and the lawsuit doesnt provide a remedy. The lawsuit itself sends a signal that a product is unsafe. That is much more informative and dramatic to the consumers than saying that this company has an Information Campaign, wouldnt you agree . The concern of the agency is to get unsafe products out of the marketplace. That case was skewed in for 6. 5 years we had no remedy for the consumer. To this day. The concerned with any other product we have identified how we can get that out of the market quick ascent away from the consumer to avoid any additional injuries or incidents is a goal. Let me just finish with one question. Three years have passed since the cpsc in coordination with the epa and the cdc said it was going to study chrome rubber. When will that study be done . I can only speak with our agency. But we were charged to do with playgrounds the study is done. We will be getting a report. And if i can make a pitch to our budget because what youre addressing is a chronic hazard. We generally address acute hazards and we talked about emerging hazards and we talked about chronic hazards. We would take on the issue but we need the funding. Are you saying another agency is delaying it . It was a joint product. The cpsc has completed our small part of what we were charged to do. I dont think the vote has been called that we have 10 minutes for the members of the committee who are here. I dont know how the story ends. Thank you, mr. Chairman. The enforcement decisions this commission has made particularly as they relate to childrens products gravely concerns me. Instead of issuing recalls to protect the public, the cpsc has relied on voluntary Settlement Agreements and has not even tracked whether the company set of entered into these agreements are adhering to them instead of levying Civil Penalties against bad actors, cpsc has been turning a blind eye to the wrongdoing. Instead of finalizing Safety Standards, cpsc has continued to kick the can down the road allowing products like infant newborn sleepers to proliferate. Today senator blumenthal and i have asked the gao to look into these and other enforcement related issues. Chairman buerkle, since 2012 the cpsc has been aware of spontaneous crashes caused by the popular jogging stroller. Crashes resulting in broken bones, torn ligaments, and smashed teeth. Staff recommended the stroller be recalled. In 2018 the commissioners voted in support of that recall with you being the loan to center. After they shifted to a republican majority, the commission drastically changed his position and decided on a voluntary Settlement Agreement with the Stroller Company on a oneyear Public Safety campaign. We are almost halfway through the year. What evidence do you have that this Information Campaign has adequately address the hazard . Sir, if i could i would like to correct the record. It was not a recall that i voted against. It was there lawsuit. The Company Refused to do a recall. We reached an agreement with the company to get that product as quickly as we can out of the consumers hands to avoid additional injuries or death. It was a lawsuit voted against and as i recounted to senator blumenthal, my interest is keeping the consumer safe. We get the products out of the market and provide an adequate remedy to them. Having only sued one other case and no remedy has been given to the consumer is it working or just more need to be done . That was only part of the Settlement Agreement. One part was to make other changes to the stroller and replace the bolt. I would say the settlement is in the process of continuing to work out. We will know let me go to you, commissioner kaye. What this mean the proliferation of other jogging strollers that will be out on the market . Thankfully we have not seen that. I do think to your earlier question as anticipated this Education Campaign would be a total debacle and i think that has played out. Consumers have been poorly served by it. I have seen zero evidence that what has been done to date has been remotely effective. In september 2018 the childrens product team was eliminated. This would be the team responsible for studying the alleged effects in the strollers and sleepers that killed over 30 newborns. Why was his team of childrens experts abolished . The Compliance Organization was long overdue for reorganization. The people who do any testing or determination as to whether the product hazard, many of those are now part of the reorganization. Our director felt he needed stronger people in charge of these various the fact and regulated organizations within his Compliance Department commissioner kaye, did you agree with this decision . The decision was made under the chair and if i can quickly answer i would say i was less concerned about the change in the name over the organization that the people were working under a farmer concerned about the changing culture with compliance of how it became the driving factor of their work. [ indiscernible multiple speakers ] i think that they are doing the same work, just under a different name. I believe the culture of the agency has changed from one that was driven hard to try to take these products up the market to making sure that industry was not upset with what was being done. Thank you, mr. Chairman. Your agency plays a significant role in each of our daily lives and i appreciate the hard work of the agency staff to make sure the products we use are safe particularly products use by children or products that can be misused by children. Making sure our children are safe must be a top priority for the cpsc. Unfortunately current leadership has failed to live up to his statutory obligations. These failures will cost childrens lives and well being. I am concerned that as of may 31 there have already been 1722 incidents of exposure to Electronic Cigarettes or liquid nicotine reported to poison control centers. Over 340 calls per month. Those figures are frightening. As you know, liquid nicotine is highly toxic when adjusted or absorbed through the skin. You work to develop the child nicotine poisoning prevention act which gives cpsc the authority to enforce requirements for a Child Resistant Packaging and flow restrictors on liquid nicotine. To what extent are you fully enforcing the law and doing enough to protect children . Thank you for the question. I did have an opportunity to work on that legislation and enjoy the opportunity to work with you in your office to advance what i see as an important bill to address the issue of unintentional poisoning from a liquid or liquid nicotine bottles. It includes important safeguards for Child Resistant Packaging and requires that these bottles include flow restrictors. I have made enforcement of this act priority in the agency has moved forward with the enforcement posture clearly more work needs to be done, but this is something i will continue to Pay Attention to and i hope we can maintain an open dialogue as we move forward. The flame retardants have a welldocumented association with Significant Adverse Health effects on children. I would like to asked the commissioners a yes or no question. Do you support the cpsc moving forward to develop a proposed rule to ban this a pulse furniture, mattresses and electronics casings . What we start with you. We just recently received a report back in we will be were being the commissioners on july 24 regarding their findings. We cannot examine this class of chemicals and we need to break it down as a subclass and it would be 1 million per subclass. Establishing a priority for that as well as the funding is a challenge for the agency. Whether or not these ofrs have a chronic hazard with exposure to the consumer. It is a funding issue and i would request again and i know your inner appropriations committee, your requesting him right now. Thats what i want to see. I am on appropriations and i will support him in his efforts to get you the money to do that. So you are willing to move forward. We are willing to move forward and look at it with the proper funding. Just one minute left. I share the chairmans concern that nas host told us it will be 6 million to fund this. That is not money the agency has immediately available. This is a critically important safety issue and we should move forward. I agree we should move forward with the study. Yes, consistent with the law. Ive got additional questions for the record. Im going to be very quick and as part of my question. Last year the cpsc held their first public hearing on potential safety issues and hazards associate with the internet Consumer Product. The iot has opened doors to innovated opportunities. Companies are on a mission to make our lives easier. They generate new risks to product safety. Hack some vulnerabilities have happened and so your agency is tasked with ensuring product safety would mean safety and security and im going to assess her view. We do not consider personal Data Security and privacy issues that may be related to iot devices to be Consumer Product [ indiscernible ]. What is your view of your jurisdiction over these . Physical threats or privacy and cybersecurity as well . I cannot speak for the full commission. We put out a paper and ill be happy to send it to your office providing steps forward the agency can and should take. We dont have jurisdiction over a privacy violation but the route runner ability create similar safety issues and we believe you would have a hack, a safety issue the ftc would take a lead on the privacy issue and we would take the lead on the safety issue and solve the problem. We will submit the rest of the questions. Thank you. The hearing will remain open for two weeks. I assume there will be many. The witnesses are requested to submit the written answers. This concludes the hearing and we think the witnesses. Accomplished, i guess. Thank you very much. She spends washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up tuesday morning, two members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Talk about problems with the u. S. And iran. 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