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Joint letter from industry and public interest groups to Congress strongly supporting the CPSC’s mission and a substantial increase in funding

The undersigned organizations, representing consumer organizations, environmental groups, testing laboratories and manufacturers and retailers of consumer products are strong supporters of the mission of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). We have differences of opinion as it relates to the workings of and statutory provisions relevant to the CPSC, but nonetheless strongly and uniformly agree on the need for an effective and functioning agency. There is also consensus among CPSC stakeholders that the agency is significantly underfunded and therefore short staffed compared to other federal health and safety regulatory agencies. The CPSC’s current budget is by far the smallest among federal health and safety regulatory agencies. Yet the agency has a broad mandate with jurisdiction over roughly 15,000 different types of consumer products used by 330 million American consumers in everyday life.

Based on our collective experiences interacting with the staff and leadership of the CPSC—for whom we have great respect—it is clear that a substantial increase in funding is needed for an expansion of personnel to ensure the agency can effectively and efficiently serve out its mission. This is in addition to many programmatic and technological needs that separately require a funding increase. Our organizations have supported such increases to CPSC funding for years but have not done so in a coordinated effort. In an attempt to increase the urgency behind this issue, we are hopeful that this letter, representing a large swath of the universe of CPSC stakeholders, makes clear that there should be widespread and bipartisan congressional support for a properly resourced and staffed CPSC.

Sincerely,

American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA)
American Chemistry Council
American Cleaning Institute
American Home Furnishings Alliance
Association of Home Appliance Manufacturers
Breast Cancer Prevention Partners
Consumer Federation of America
Consumer Reports
Earthjustice
Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association
Kids In Danger
Natural Resources Defense Council
National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)
National Center for Health Research
National Consumers League
National Retail Federation
Parents Against Tip-overs
Public Citizen
Public Interest Research Group
Retail Industry Leaders Association (RILA)
Society of Glass and Ceramic Decorated Products
The Power Tool Institute
TIC Council
The Toy Association

For the full letter, click here.