CPSC Acting Chairman Ann Marie Buerkle Emphasizes Collaboration, Balance, and Education
Acting Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) Ann Marie Buerkle highlighted her priorities and recent noteworthy developments in a recent newsletter. She emphasized her desire to collaborate with stakeholders, to take a “balanced and reasonable approach” to regulation when data justifies rulemaking, and to use information campaigns to educate consumers and industry. She shared a few rulemaking updates, including movement on the revocation of the magnet standard from the CFR, oral presentations on the NPRM for portable generators, and progress on the NPR related to table saws.
Buerkle noted the following upcoming events:
- Monthly educational webinar series sponsored by the CPSC’s Small Business Ombudsman. Last month they provided an overview of updates to the toy standard. More industry-specific resources to come.
- Solicitation of stakeholder feedback on test burden reduction, recall effectiveness, and the FY 2018 & 2019 priorities. Stay tuned regarding these opportunities once dates are finalized.
- Robert Kaye was named Director of the Office of Compliance and Field Operations. Mr. Kaye joined the CPSC from the Department of Education, but had spent most of his career at the FTC where he most recently was Chief Litigation Counsel in the Bureau of Consumer Protection.
- Jim Joholske was promoted to Director of the Office of Import Surveillance. Mr. Joholske had been the deputy head of the Import Surveillance Office since it was first created as a division of Compliance a decade ago.