Thank you for the invitation to speak today. It is wonderful to address you in person for AAFA’s product safety and compliance seminar as opposed to by video as I did last year. 

Throughout its history, CPSC has worked closely with the footwear and apparel industry.  We share an interest in the safety of consumer products, including compliance with the Flammable Fabrics Act.  And I appreciate those of you who have prioritized making your products safe and compliant.  It makes my job easy and more importantly, keeps your customers happy and healthy.

As many of you know, the CPSC is a small but mighty agency.  We have an enormous mission to protect the public from unreasonable risks of injury and death from more than 15,000 categories of products.  And we do this with a dedicated staff and a budget that is far smaller than that of any other federal consumer protection agency. 

Complicating matters this year is the lack of clarity over what exactly that budget is.  We are four and a half months into the current fiscal year, and I feel the weight of our limited and precarious funding acutely right now.  Limited resources and uncertainty are slowing our safety efforts, including the speed of import inspections and guidance provided to businesses.

And when we do get our final appropriations, I fear that it will reflect a decrease in our budget from last year, further complicating matters.  In the end, we will need to figure out how to do more with less and prioritize what is most important.  From my perspective, that means putting consumers first in every decision we make. 

Over the past few years, this North Star has changed how we operate in some ways. For example:

• When we issue recalls, we are focused on making it as simple as possible for consumers to receive notification and take action. As part of that, we are working with recalling firms, as well as the retailers and the online marketplaces that are often the point of contact for consumers, to issue direct notice to buyers about the recall in a way that gets their attention.
• When companies don’t respond to a request for a recall, or don’t offer adequate remedies, we are going public with warnings to consumers about those products.  Once a rare occurrence, these unilateral warnings are now an important part of our toolbox, especially for products sold by foreign manufacturers on e-commerce websites.  Consumers have a right to know about hazardous products that are in their homes and before they buy.  And it is not fair for you to compete against companies that cut corners on safety.
• We have finalized mandatory safety regulations that address hazards caused by ingesting small, button cell batteries and powerful magnets; furniture tip-overs that can crush children; and adult portable bedrails that can trap the elderly.  These rules establish important baseline protections for consumers and provide clarity and a level playing field for companies.
• We are expanding our consumer education efforts to reach communities that are too often overlooked, including Native American communities. 
• And we are expanding our outreach to small and large businesses both domestically and around the world.  Last year, our Office of International Programs provided training to over 800 foreign industry and foreign government representatives in Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea, and Mexico.  And our Small Business Ombudsman’s office held 15 outreach events with nearly 30,000 viewers/attendees in total – nearly doubling our outreach from the previous year. 

Looking forward, despite the uncertainty and the risk of fewer resources, the Commission has embraced an ambitious agenda for this year, including finalizing long-delayed rulemakings to establish safety standards, continuing small business outreach and information sharing both in person and through the Regulatory Robot, enforcing the safety standards that have been put into place over the last several years, educating consumers about potential product safety hazards, and strengthening our ability to prevent hazardous products from reaching consumers – particularly through monitoring imports. 

With respect to imports, I’m reminded that we are just blocks from the LA/Long Beach port – the busiest port in the Western Hemisphere with ships and shipping containers in every direction.  Looking at the scale of this place, I am amazed at how our import staff are able to find and identify hazardous consumer products among all of those ships and stop them before they reach store shelves. It’s a true needle in the haystack scenario. 

That’s why we are strengthening our capacity to monitor imports and sales of non-compliant and defective products while at the same time making the process faster and easier for trusted importers.

To assist our import staff and to help move compliant, safe trade more efficiently, CPSC has taken major steps forward in the implementation of our eFiling program.  This program – once finalized – will enable CPSC staff to focus their limited time on higher risk shipments.  The Beta Pilot launched in October 2023 with more than 35 participants (importers, brokers, and laboratories) who are entering certificates into the eFiling Product Registry and providing real-time feedback that will inform rulemaking.  I know some of you have signed up to participate in this pilot and I want to thank you for providing essential information to staff.

To finalize the eFiling program, a rulemaking process is currently in full swing, running in tandem with the Beta Pilot. The comment period on this rulemaking closed earlier this month, and staff have begun analyzing the comments and developing the final rule.  This synchronized strategy is designed to culminate in full implementation of the eFiling program later this year.  It will give us the tools to better target potentially hazardous or violative products at the ports, while allowing compliant products to move quickly to their final destination. 

But we also have to be honest with ourselves that a significant number of the consumer products that enter the country are not coming into the U.S. through traditional means and in these large shipments. Rather, they are coming in small shipments directly to U.S. consumers from third party sellers that utilize online marketplaces to reach consumers.  That is why I have been urging online marketplaces to do more to address recalled, non-compliant, and dangerous products that are sold on their sites.   

It seems that for every hazard we’ve addressed with a new regulation or recall, you can find online an illegal offer to sell the recalled or noncompliant product.  Whether it’s through a third-party seller on a website like Temu or your next-door neighbor unknowingly re-selling a recalled product on a site like Facebook Marketplace, dangerous products remain available to all consumers. 

To add to the confusion, depending on whether the online marketplace is operating as a retailer, is providing product distribution services, or is simply serving as a platform for third party sellers to interact with consumers, different laws and obligations apply. But consumers don't know that, and frankly, they shouldn’t have to. 

Consumers expect the products they purchase online to be as safe as those purchased in their local store.  And if there is a problem, they expect the online marketplace to stand behind that sale.

Ultimately, this is also harmful to companies that prioritize safety.  You must compete with bad actors who are cutting safety corners to decrease costs and often mimic your trusted brands, harming your reputations. 

At CPSC, our eSAFE team identifies hazardous products online every day, and they work with online marketplaces to get those listings taken down promptly.  Last year, this team requested the removal of more than 50,000 products.  But the problem is much bigger and CPSC has only limited resources and tools to tackle the matter.  Large platforms have both the resources and the ability to stop the sale of violative products even before they are offered to the public.

That is why I’ve urged industry to continue to work with CPSC to address the hazards posed by recalled, non-compliant and dangerous products online.  And, while some online marketplaces have made significant progress, too much of the focus has been reactive—relying on CPSC or others to identify and request that illegal listings be taken down – as opposed to proactive in finding the hazardous products and keeping them from being listed in the first place.

One of my top priorities is to change the paradigm of e-commerce by empowering consumers with safety tools and information for online shopping, encouraging marketplaces to focus on promoting a culture of safety at their organizations, and holding third party sellers accountable for the products sold on their sites.  I call this Product Safety by Design and I look forward to seeing real changes in the marketplace as companies take on this challenge.

Another issue that is top of mind for regulators and policy makers and particularly relevant for many of you in this room is the chronic risk posed by certain chemicals in consumer products. Consumers are more aware than ever of the health risks from PFAS and related chemicals.  These so called “forever chemicals” remain in our environment and our water long after they seep out of the product they were originally contained within.  And there is a growing urgency to remove them from use. 

CPSC has a role here, too.  Just last year, we issued a report that provides an overview of PFAS, particularly as they relate to their uses in consumer products and associated potential exposures and health effects, and we sought comments on that report.  And we are working with ASTM International in the development of a Standard guide for Selecting and Applying Analytical Methods to Evaluate PFAS in Consumer Products. 

When completed, this will be the first step toward providing stakeholders, like yourselves, with analytical methods that may be applicable to consumer products.

But to be frank, CPSC’s statutes place additional hurdles on our ability to address chronic safety hazards such that we would have a long road ahead of us if we want to issue any regulations on PFAS. That is why we need partners to take these problems seriously and to address them.

Some states have already begun regulating PFAS. And I know that many in your industry are stepping up proactively to replace PFAS in products, and meet the obligations imposed by the states.  I urge you to continue that work and take a leadership role in eliminating these chemicals from all consumer products. 

In the meantime, we will continue our research and, where appropriate, will build a case for federal regulations.  But we cannot flip a switch.  Removing these chemicals from consumer products will require leadership from companies like yours.

I’d like to conclude with a brief discussion of Reese’s Law and the hazards posed by button and coin cell batteries.  The dangers posed by these batteries were first brought to my attention nearly 15 years ago when I was a Senate staffer and heard from the American Academy of Pediatrics about the incredible damage these batteries can do to a child’s internal organs if they are swallowed. 

Thanks to dedicated advocates and focused attention from members of Congress, Reese’s Law was enacted in 2022, and we at CPSC are working towards implementation.  This law established strong consumer protections aimed at preventing children from accessing these batteries.  It requires child resistant packaging for batteries sold to consumers and called on CPSC to set standards for the safety of consumer products that contain these batteries.

We issued our regulation in September 2023, and adopted a new industry standard – UL 4200A – as the mandatory standard. We also provided six months of enforcement discretion to allow the industry to redesign products and come into compliance.  I recognize this is a tight schedule, but the risks of harm to babies and small children are real and must be addressed in a timely manner.  I urge everyone in this room to take these requirements seriously and to ensure that any of your products that include button or coin cell batteries meet the requirements of the law and protect children from harm.

Thank you for your time today, and I would be happy to take questions.