CPSC Budget Request Is for Reduction to $135 Million

CPSC's April 3 FY2027 budget request again seeks reduced funding to $135 million, but it does not envision staffing reductions from 459 full time equivalents. A separate request by the inspector general office seeks to increase its funding from $1.82 million to $2.02 million. It cites need for staffing to address audit areas it cannot get to, including a backlog.

As for the main request, like last year (PSL, 6/9/25), it repeats both the idea of merger into the Department of Health and Human Services as well as the acknowledgement that such a change would require legislation. Despite seeking the same funding cut last year, CPSC's enacted funding currently is nearly $151 million, a holdover number from recent years. Also like last year, the request is short on specifics of where money would be spread. Instead, it includes descriptions of work areas targeted in the current operating plan (PSL, 1/19/26) organized around three strategic goals: "Readiness," "Intelligence," and "Operations."

The budget request lacks a commission vote as there currently is no such panel. The Code of Federal Regulations at 16 CFR 1009.8(b) declares it a "general policy" for such requests to be subject to a vote.

Meanwhile, Section 4(f)(3) of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA) declares:

"Requests or estimates for…appropriations on behalf of the Commission may not be submitted by the Chairman without the prior approval of the Commission."

On the other hand, approve is not necessarily a synonym of words like vote, and the CPSA does not explicitly mandate that anything be subject to commission voting.

Acting Chairman Peter Feldman is operating as a solo agency leader under three delegations of authorities given to him by himself and ex-Commissioner Douglas Dziak just before the latter left (PSL, 8/20/25). However, they cover adjudicatory (bit.ly/46IHNPW), enforcement (bit.ly/4212Bjc), and regulatory (bit.ly/4mqyqt4) powers.