[8] The commission is led by acting Chairman Peter Feldman, a Republican, who assumed office after former chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric resigned in January 2025.

[9] Prior to Hoehn-Saric's 2021 confirmation, the commission had not had a Senate-confirmed chairman since 2017, when Elliot F. Kaye stepped down as chair following a White House request after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

[10] In March 2020, President Trump nominated Nancy Beck, an official at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who previously worked for an association representing the U.S. chemical industry,[11] to chair the commission, but it was not acted on by the Senate.

Failing to do so can justify the revocation of a rule, as was the case in a Tenth Circuit decision vacating the CPSC’s ban on small high-powered magnets.

The agency also operates the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS), a probability sample of about 100 hospitals with 24-hour emergency rooms.

NEISS collects data on consumer product related injuries treated in ERs and can be used to generate national estimates.

[24][25] See also Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act In connection with the U.S. swimming season (the northern hemisphere’s summer, roughly May to September), the CPSC conducts the “Pool Safely” campaign to prevent drowning through methods such as building fences and supporting education programs.

[32] In April 2018, Polaris Industries agreed to pay a record $27.25 million civil penalty for failing to report defective off-road vehicles.

After the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act was passed in the same year that increased significantly, with at least 500 full-time employees with a budget of $136.4 million in ~2014.

[34] Funding dropped to $127 million as of the commission’s fiscal year 2019 appropriation,[35] and it continues to have slightly more than 500 employees.

These issues led to the legislative interest in the reform of the agency, and the final result of these efforts was the passage of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act in 2008.

[34] Danny’s parents, Linda E. Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, founded Kids In Danger and were instrumental in working with the CPSC to strengthen product safety standards.

The public database (saferproducts.gov), constructed at a cost of around US$3 million and launched in March 2011, “publicizes complaints from virtually anyone who can provide details about a safety problem connected with any of the 15,000 kinds of consumer goods regulated by the CPSC.”[37] While lauded by consumer advocates for making previously hidden information available, manufacturers have expressed their concern “that most of the complaints are not first vetted by the CPSC before they are made public,” meaning it could be abused and potentially used to target specific brands.

[47] In 2012, following reports of consumers (mostly children) ingesting small, high-powered magnets made of rare earth materials such as neodymium, the commission voted to block sales of Maxfield & Oberton’s Buckyballs-branded toys,[48] and later voted to issue a rule that would amount to a ban on all similar toys.

[49][50] Later, however, a federal appellate court overturned the ban, finding that the Commission had moved forward without adequate data.

In 1981, President Ronald Reagan’s head of the Office of Management & Budget, David Stockman, sought to end the authorization for the agency to move it inside the Department of Commerce.