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Statement of Commissioner Ann Marie Buerkle on the Commission's Decision That Certificates of Compliance Will Not Be Required For Adult Wearing Apparel That is Exempt From Testing

February 26, 2016

I am delighted that the Commission has approved this exercise of enforcement discretion, and I congratulate my colleague, Commissioner Mohorovic, and his staff, for all of their efforts to get through the process.  The CPSC staffs, particularly from the Office of Compliance, the Office of Import Surveillance, and the Office of General Counsel, especially Stephanie Tsacoumis, also deserve credit for working through the issues and recognizing the merits of the approach.

Most importantly, the burden reduction approved in this instance cost the taxpayer very little.  While I am grateful to Congress for devoting some of our recent appropriations to burden reduction, I have been dismayed at the extremely slow pace of CPSC’s efforts and the extremely meager results to date.  I am convinced that there are other significant burden reduction steps that we can take if only we put our collective minds to it as did Commissioner Mohorovic and his staff in this case.  I would urge outside groups to study this decision and to look for other situations that may be analogous, or to make the case for different burden reduction approaches.

Finally, I urge all U.S. clothing retailers to do their part to let this burden reduction be realized.  If retailers insist that certificates be furnished to them in these cases, even though we have said we will not enforce the requirement, they will greatly reduce, if not nullify, the economic benefits of the Commission’s decision.  

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