Biden appoints House aide as chairman of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Committee Reuters

David Shepson

(Reuters)-The White House stated that President Joe Biden plans to nominate a senior attorney from a U.S. House of Representatives committee to chair the Consumer Product Safety Committee (CPSC) and nominate an attorney from the agency for another committee position.

Biden announced on Friday night that he intends to nominate Democrat Alexander Hoehn-Saric as chairman of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission, who is the chief legal counsel of the Energy and Business Communications and Consumer Protection Subcommittee. Reuters earlier reported on the planned nomination.

Hoehn-Saric is committed to legislation and supervision related to product safety, consumer protection and communications.

The White House said the Democratic president also plans to nominate Mary Boyle to join the committee. She is the current executive director of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission and has held senior positions in the agency for more than ten years.

Maria Cantwell, chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee, said in a statement: “American families need a strong policeman to deal with the situation of the Consumer Product Safety Committee,” Horn-Sarrick, a former senior adviser to the Senate Commerce Committee. It has been at the forefront of CPSC’s struggle to protect consumers, children, and families from dangerous products.” In December 2019, Senate Democrats stated in a report that CPSC inappropriately respects the companies it investigates.

The Senate Commerce Committee report stated that the settlement reached by the committee under the leadership of Republican President Donald Trump was “inconsistent with the traditional recall agreement negotiated by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.”

The report found: “These recalls do not provide consumers with specific remedies to repair all affected products or refunds to remove dangerous products from their homes, but instead serve as marketing tools that allow the recalling company to sell more products.”