Consumer Reports Urges Congress to Protect Consumers by Rejecting Misguided Proposal
WASHINGTON, DC — Consumer Reports (CR) today strongly opposed the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) Fiscal Year 2026 budget request to Congress, which proposes to eliminate the independent federal agency and sharply reduce its funding and staff. CR previously denounced a draft plan to eliminate the CPSC, which surfaced in April 2025.
The CPSC’s budget request would shut down the CPSC and put the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in charge of overseeing the safety of more than 15,000 types of consumer products. The budget request also drastically cuts resources for carrying out the CPSC’s functions, which would severely weaken the federal government’s ability to protect consumers from illegal, hazardous and defective products.
“Simply put, shortsighted plans to dismantle the nation’s long-standing product safety watchdog will make everyone less safe,” said Gabe Knight, CR’s senior safety policy analyst. “Whether they’ve heard of the agency or not, Americans depend on the CPSC every day. If this agency is eliminated, we will be left to face a more dangerous marketplace, and suffer from increased exposure to hazardous products that can injure or kill. Consumer Reports calls on Congress to assert itself, reject this budget request, and defend the agency it created and has supported for more than fifty years.”
The budget proposal calls for $135 million to support a new consumer product safety program within HHS—down from the $151 million granted for the CPSC in FY 2025. It would also cut the agency’s staffing levels to 459 full-time equivalents (FTEs), down from 534 FTEs in FY 2025. Transferring the CPSC’s functions to HHS would also end its status as an independent federal agency, specifically established by Congress to be relatively insulated from day-to-day politics, putting its vital science-based decision-making at risk of political pressures—regardless of which party is in charge.
In May 2025, CR condemned the firing of three agency leaders at the CPSC, which eliminated the bipartisan representation that has been so critical to the agency. The CPSC was established by Congress in 1972 as “[a]n independent regulatory commission … consisting of five Commissioners who shall be appointed by the President, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate” where “[n]ot more than three of the Commissioners shall be affiliated with the same political party.” Commissioners “may be removed by the President for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office but for no other cause.”
The elimination of the CPSC requires authorization by Congress. CR is calling on lawmakers to reject the budget proposal, and maintain the CPSC’s independence, funding, and authority to act on behalf of the public.
***
Media Contact: Emily Akpan, emily.akpan@consumer.org