[Federal Register: December 20, 2010 (Volume 75, Number 243)]
[The Regulatory Plan]               
[Page 79693]
From the Federal Register Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
[DOCID:fr20de10-429]                         

 
Statement of Regulatory Priorities
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is charged with protecting 
the public from unreasonable risks of death and injury associated with 
consumer products. To achieve this goal, the Commission:
 Develops mandatory product safety standards or banning rules 
            when other, less restrictive, efforts are inadequate to 
            address a safety hazard, or where required by statute;
 Obtains repair, replacement, or refund of the purchase price 
            for defective products that present a substantial product 
            hazard;
 Develops information and education campaigns about the safety 
            of consumer products;
 Participates in the development or revision of voluntary 
            product safety standards; and
 Follows congressional mandates to enact specific regulations.
When deciding which of these approaches to take in any specific case, 
the Commission gathers and analyzes the best available data about the 
nature and extent of the risk presented by the product. The 
Commission's rules require the Commission to consider, among other 
factors, the following criteria when deciding the level of priority for 
any particular project:
 Frequency and severity of injury;
 Causality of injury;
 Chronic illness and future injuries;
 Costs and benefits of Commission action;
 Unforeseen nature of the risk;
 Vulnerability of the population at risk; and
 Probability of exposure to the hazard.
If the Commission proposes a mandatory safety standard for a particular 
product, the Commission is generally required to make statutory cost/
benefit findings and adopt the least burdensome requirements that 
adequately protect the public.
Additionally, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 
(CPSIA), Public Law 110-314 (Aug. 14, 2008), requires numerous rules 
and notices to be completed on a specific schedule. One such regulatory 
action pertains to the testing, certification, and labeling of certain 
consumer products. Section 102(d)(2) of the CPSIA requires the 
Commission to initiate by regulation: (1) A program by which a 
manufacturer or private labeler may label a consumer product as 
complying with the certification requirements of section 102(a) of the 
CPSIA; (2) protocols and standards (i) for ensuring that a children's 
product tested for compliance with an applicable children's product 
safety rule is subject to testing periodically and when there has been 
a material change in the product's design or manufacturing process, 
including the sourcing of component parts; (ii) for the testing of 
random samples to ensure continued compliance; (iii) for verifying that 
a children's product tested by a conformity assessment body complies 
with applicable children's product safety rules; and (iv) for 
safeguarding against the exercise of undue influence on a third-party 
conformity assessment body by a manufacturer or private labeler. This 
regulatory action will constitute a ``significant regulatory action'' 
under the definition in Executive Order 12866 ``Regulatory Planning and 
Review'' (Oct. 4, 1993).
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