It Sure Looks Like Someone's Trying To Stack The Consumer Product Safety Commission. Product Safety Doesn't Care Who You Voted For

If there's one thing that cyclospora and consumer product safety have in common, it's neither of these things could possibly care less about who you voted for.

No one wants diarrhea, particularly when it can be bad enough to land you (or your loved ones) in the hospital. Similarly, no one wants either themselves or someone they love to face serious injury or death because a product is defective, poisonous, or otherwise unsafe from its manufacturer. Most reasonable people can agree that in such cases, the responsible parties should be held accountable. Right?

That's why the US Consumer Product Safety Commission was created by Congress in 1972 as an independent agency. From the outset, it was meant to include a bipartisan group of commissioners, who would work together to steer the agency in the best interests of consumers. Not politicians. Not lobbyists. Not whoever had the most money. And also, not the President, no matter who that President happened to be. That's the purpose behind an independent agency; in this case, designed to work in the best interests of the public at large.

High-minded, impossible ideals? Maybe, but you have to at least try, don't you? If you don't at least try to do something, you'll just stay in one place and never get anywhere. For the past several decades, the agency, its commissioners, and its work have saved a great many lives.

But it seems that might be changing.

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The Backstory

In May of 2025, three of the then-current commissioners of the CPSC were notified that they had been fired. When Congress created the CPSC, it plainly stated that a President could remove commissioners only for two reasons: Neglect of duty or malfeasance in office.

None of the three commissioners were removed for those reasons. Furthermore, no claims of either such behavior were made at the time of their firing. 

Instead, they were fired because of their political party affiliation. Remember the whole "bipartisan" thing? All three of the members removed were Democrats. Naturally, all three individuals understandably disagreed with their firing. So they took their case to federal court, arguing that such action was illegal since it was done without cause. 

A US District Judge agreed with their argument, and said they should be reinstated in June of 2025. However, in an emergency decision issued by the US Supreme Court in July of 2025, almost exactly a year ago at the time of writing, the Supreme Court sided with the Trump Administration on this matter, just as it had done in earlier rulings that allowed the administration to remove members of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB). 

What happens after you fire people from existing positions in any organization? Either you don't fill those positions again, or you do.

Two Candidates Enter The Fray

At the time of writing on July 21, 2026, there is only one Commissioner serving on the US CPSC. He is currently also the CPSC's Acting Chairman, and his name is Peter A. Feldman. All Commissioners appointed to serve on the CPSC have seven-year terms, and Feldman's is currently set to expire in October of 2026. 

However, as the law firm Arnold & Porter explains, the Consumer Product Safety Act requires the CPSC to have a minimum of three commissioners to form a quorum, and thus conduct its official business. So the question of whether additional commissioners would be nominated seems to have always been a matter not of if, but of when.

Now two candidates have been nominated by the President as potential Commissioners: Karen Sessions in February 2026, and current CPSC Executive Director Brien Lorenze in June 2026. Both are Republicans, which would eliminate the historically bipartisan nature of the CPSC. 

Multiple Consumer Groups Aren't Happy About Any Of This

In a letter dated July 21, 2026, a total of 30 consumer advocacy organizations headlined by the National Consumers League voiced their objections to these two candidates. They write,

Historically, the agency's independence has buffered the commissioners from political pressure from the White House and large donors. This has ensured that the agency has acted with transparency and a diversity of views, which has benefited the American people. Further, the presence of minority commissioners provided a layer of oversight and accountability on CPSC actions.

With this independent and nonpartisan structure, the CPSC has had a lifesaving effect. CPSC standards and enforcement activities have helped spur a 43 percent decline in residential fires, a 47 percent decrease in fire deaths, and a 41 percent reduction in fire injuries from 1980 to 2018. Child poisonings have decreased by 80 percent between 1972 and 2020. Bicycle injuries dropped by 35 percent between 1973 and 2020. Deaths from refrigerator door entrapments and garage door incidents have been virtually eliminated. Crib deaths have plummeted by 80 percent from 1973 to 2018. Pool and pool equipment injury rates have decreased by 55 percent from 1975 to 2019.

The letter goes on to add that,

President Trump has since nominated two individuals of his own political party, threatening to further undermine the independence and nonpartisanship of the CPSC. Diverse perspectives and transparency improve safety. Silencing the voices of subject matter experts with whom the President politically disagrees or who may not serve his financial interests can have a chilling effect on the CPSC’s functions. The President’s assertion of control over CPSC commissioners has eliminated the transparency provided by minority commissioners and the independence of those who remain.

It also goes on to cite multiple conflicts of interest found amongst the various product lines that the current President has a financial stake in, as well as those by members of his family and prominent supporters.

In a place and a time where so many of our current consumer goods and services seek to remove friction from our lives, at least one place where you actually want friction is in fighting for consumer protections. No single person or party should have complete control over that; surely you can see why that would cause a problem. Also, it doesn't actually matter who that person is.

Consumer protection is a job that is too important for a single person or a single political party.  Everyone wants their loved ones to be safe and healthy, period. That's something that no single person or political affiliation has ever had a monopoly on. 

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