[Patty]: Welcome to CPSC’s Podcast for Friday, February 8th, 2008. I’m Patty Davis.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s budget is on the rise. That is good news for consumer safety. CPSC’s fiscal 2008 budget has increased almost 30 percent from the previous year to $80 million.

Joining me to talk about the agency’s increased funding and what it will mean for consumers is CPSC’s Director of Information and Public Affairs Julie Vallese.

CPSC oversees 15,000 different types of consumer products. What should consumers expect now that the agency’s budget is increasing?

[Julie]: Much of what’s going to happen will be behind the scenes. We will be adding staff, important staff, scientists, engineers, inspectors, compliance officers, all in the field. More eyes and ears looking for safety.

We’re also creating a new import surveillance division where we will now have people assigned to the ports working with Customs and Border Protection to look at the products coming into the U.S. And we’re going to upgrade our technology at the agency. We are an agency of statistics and risk-based information. An update in technology will really assist the agency in doing more for consumers.

[Patty]: I understand there will also be a new early warning system. Is that right?

[Julie]: There will be this new early warning system where we are actually doing better communication within the agency to identify different products really in the children’s area that could potentially be causing harm to our smallest consumers and finding a way that we are able to find the problem and react to it much more quickly.

[Patty]: How will more money for the agency really impact consumer safety?

[Julie]: More money means better protection for consumers. We are already doing a very effective job with the money the agency has had in the past. But now we will be able to bring in more people which means more eyes and more ears and more inspections on consumer products. So it means that we will look closer and at more products so that those products that are going into consumers’ homes are safer than they’ve ever been before.

[Patty]: And Julie, the CPSC is once again without a quorum. What does loss of quorum mean, can you explain that, and should consumers be concerned about that?

[Julie]: Consumer safety is not at risk because of a loss of quorum. A loss of quorum means that the agency cannot move forward any rulemaking. Our staff will still be working on their briefing packages and will be putting things in the queue, ready to go when that quorum is restored. But with a loss of quorum, enforcement does not end. We are still able to investigate and recall products each and every time we need to do so.

[Patty]: Thanks Julie.

Visit our Web site, www.cpsc.gov, for more information on CPSC. And while you’re there, don’t forget to sign up to receive CPSC’s recall announcements directly to your email inbox.

That’s it for this week’s CPSC podcast. Thanks for listening.

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