House CPSC Budget Hearing Ranges Far Beyond Funding

A July 23 House hearing on CPSC's FY2024 budget was a wide-ranging review of agency activities. Indeed, discussion of the budget itself took up only a small portion of the session, which lasted more than two hours. Money attention involved whether the current $151 million funding should be cut by $9 million (about 6%) under a recent House proposal (PSL, 6/24/24) or increased some $32 million (about 20%) as CPSC has requested (PSL, 3/18/24).

Legislators floated cost cutting ideas like further reducing office space due to hybrid work trends. CPSC Chairman Alexander Hoehn-Saric confirmed there is an effort to see if more could be added to roughly 15,000 square feet already given up in Bethesda. However, he stressed there are limits. Rockville lab space would be an unlikely target. Also, some ideas would not work such as eliminating conference rooms, often within other needed space.

Another idea – doing more with cost and waste observations from the inspector general office – was met with Hoehn-Saric's characterization that recent ones involved matters like accruals or depreciations. Addressing them would be unlikely to affect available money.

Similarly, to a suggestion to avoid litigation costs via more procedural care in crafting rules, he quipped that it seemed "anytime we do a rule, we end up in court." He asserted – in response to a question about the Supreme Court's overruling of Chevron deference (PSL, 7/1/24) – that CPSC already had taken a narrow approach to reading laws, but that the decision would "inform us going forward."

There were Republican criticisms of Commissioner Richard Trumka pressuring retailers not to carry products like water beads or weighted infant blankets. A no-bid contractor from Boise State also drew complaints.

Election year talking points were at a minimum despite the hearing announcement's focus on gas appliance bans (PSL, 7/22/24). A few Republican members raised gas stoves in passing. Only one, near the end, gave them more attention, asking multiple questions on last year's request for information. Ultimately, Hoehn-Saric simply repeated the position that there is not work on a ban. He pointed to its absence in the current operating plan.

One Democrat warned about Project 2025 ideas for federal workers. By the thinktank Heritage Foundation, the plan has gotten attention in the presidential race.

The hearing was by the Innovation, Data, and Commerce Subcommittee of the Energy and Commerce Committee.