Consumer Reports (CR), the independent, nonprofit, and nonpartisan member organization, welcomes the chance to submit comments on the agenda and priorities of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) for fiscal years 2026 and 2027.
For almost 90 years, improving product safety has been central to CR’s mission. We assess safety risks, investigate their impact on consumers, and inform the public and the CPSC when we identify product hazards—all on a data-driven basis. We push the agency to take strong action to keep the public safe from unreasonable risks posed by consumer products, and defend the agency’s authority to carry out its duty, including through promulgating mandatory safety standards, holding companies accountable for wrongdoing, and warning the public about potential safety hazards.
Consumers depend on the CPSC to create and enforce data-driven safety rules, stop dangerous imported products at U.S. ports of entry, and warn them when there is a hazardous product on the market, or already in their homes, that could injure or kill them. To continue serving the public as it has for decades, the CPSC must remain an independent watchdog that puts consumers and their safety first, as Congress intended when it created the agency more than 50 years ago. Consumer Reports is deeply concerned about ongoing efforts to curtail the agency’s independence and the integrity of the Commission’s bipartisan leadership. We also strongly oppose all attempts to eliminate the agency and put the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in charge of overseeing the safety of more than 15,000 types of consumer products. Such efforts directly conflict with federal law that established the agency and its structure, and hinder the agency’s ability to protect consumers and their families, putting them at greater risk of injury and death from unsafe products.
To read the full comments, click here.