The Consumer Product Safety Commission: Why Does President Donald Trump Want to Dismantle the Commission? An Associated Senator and Consumer Lobby Critique
Consumer protection groups and lawmakers warn that Trump could be trying to dismantle the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
The FTC case has not yet reached the court, despite the Supreme Court signaling a willingness to overturn its precedent in favor of expanding executive power. The law of the land could change soon, though Humphrey’s Executor remains the law for now. That makes it all the more baffling why the president is violating his oath of office by illegally firing Commissioners of independent agencies.
Democrats and an independent Senator from Vermont sent a letter condemning plans to remove the agency’s functions and staff, and to create a new division within the Department of Health.
The President has authority to remove members of the Consumer Product Safety Act. President Trump has exercised this authority, and he has done so lawfully,” Feldman wrote. ThePSC is committed to the mission of protecting Americans from injury associated with consumer products. The commission will continue its work with integrity.
The email sent to Trumka and Mary did not say why Trump was firing them. She told The Washington Post that she had been terminated.
Alexander Hoehn-Saric, the third Democratic commissioner, said in a statement that he received no communications from the White House, but that CPSC Acting Chairman Peter Feldman “is preventing me from executing my duties as Commissioner based on an assertion that the President is also seeking my removal.”
“The illegal attempt to remove me from CPSC happened immediately after my colleagues and I took steps to advance our safety work and protect our staff from arbitrary firings,” Hoehn-Saric wrote in his statement.
The agency formed in 1972 to protect Americans from dangerous and even fatal items like portable bed rails is called the Consumer Product Safety Commission. It also seizes hazardous products at the nation’s ports. The agency is led by five commissioners, one who serves as chairman, that serve for multi-year terms. All of the Democrats fired by Trump still had from several months to years left on their term.
The same could be said about Trumka, Lovatka, and Hoehn-saric who were nominated by Joe Biden. Before being nominated to serve as a commissioner, she was a staff member at the CPSC.
Trumka, whose father was powerful labor leader and Democratic Party ally Richard Trumka, had a background in law with a career working as an assistant attorney general in the consumer protection division in Maryland and as general counsel and staff director of the House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy.
Hoehn-Saric similarly has a background in law and working on consumer protection oversight as chief counsel with the House Energy and Commerce Committee.
Ignoring Independence: The CPSC Fires that have been Led to the Generalized Electric Lithium-Ion Battery Safety Commission
“By 3:45 pm, CPSC’s Acting Chair, Peter Feldman sent an email to Commissioners seeking approval to bring aboard two DOGE detailees to the agency: Justin Fox and Nate Cavanaugh. He set a 6:00 pm deadline to respond,” Trumka wrote.
They were refused at that point. According to Trumka, if these people are allowed to govern the agency, it will gut it and turn back the clock on product safety. Two of my colleagues said no as well, forming a majority to block the move. Rather than respect the democratic process, soon after, I received the email purporting to fire me.”
In February, Trump signed an executive order which was supposed to give him more authority over other independent agencies, such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. His administration should be involved in regulatory work from all of those agencies.
As a result of the firing of thousands of federal employees, and any other offices that are opposing his administration’s agenda, Trump also fired high-ranking officials at independent agencies. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and the National Labor Relations Board were hit by high-level firings.
I will protect the American people from harm through that time. The President would like to end this nation’s long history of independent agencies, so he’s chosen to ignore the law and pretend independence doesn’t exist. Trumka wrote that he would see him in court. “It’s too important to take this lying down.”
The firing comes in the wake of a draft budget proposal that would have eliminated the CSPC, whose commissioners are bipartisan by law and who serve five-year terms. The Department of Health and Human Services, headed by a political appointee, currently has the commission’s regulatory powers rolled into it.
The Washington Post reported that the firings came shortly after the three Democrats on the commission — Richard Trumka, Mary Boyle and Alexander Hoehn-Saric, all Biden appointees — voted to publish safety standards for small lithium-ion batteries used in electric bikes and electric scooters, with the two Republicans voting against it. At least 38 people have been killed and181 people have been injured because of fires caused by these batteries, according to the report.
The following Thursday, two members of DOGE appeared at the CPSC’s offices. The next day, Trumka and Boyle were fired. According to The Hill, Hoehn-Saric and his staff were locked out of the building after he did not receive a letter. The members said they would appeal their firings to the courts and that Trump had acted illegally.
The White House does not believe in removing people from the executive branch for cause, but rather that the president has the right to fire them.
The president fired the Democrats at the Federal Trade Commission in March due to a Supreme Court precedent that limits his power to remove officers from the legislative branch of an independent agency. The White House believes that the president has the power to fire anyone and the Justice Department is about to challenge Humphrey’s Executor on the Supreme Court. This interpretation of the constitution has been endorsed by the new chair of the FTC. Fired FTC commissioners Rebecca Kelly Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya have since sued the administration.