Today, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) voted unanimously to approve its Fiscal Year 2023 Midyear Review, which aligns CPSC’s spending for the remainder of FY 23 with the actual funding we received.
I am pleased that my colleagues accepted an amendment I co-authored with Commissioner Boyle to strengthen CPSC’s enforcement and investigation teams. Since joining CPSC, I have worked to provide additional resources for our compliance staff, field investigators, and port inspectors. As a result, the Commission has been more active at building and bringing cases, which is why it is now critical that we continue to grow our compliance capacity. This amendment makes good on a provision I sponsored last October to prioritize new compliance hires after we received our annual appropriation.
Strengthening our compliance ranks, as this Midyear Review does, will provide our compliance team with the additional resources needed to take actions such as enforcing the Small Parts Rule, which protects young children from choking and suffocation hazards. The recall of Calico Critters animal figures and sets announced in March was an important step in addressing the dangers that toys with very small pieces can pose. The plan we approved today is the next step in protecting children from these kinds of products.
I am grateful for the unanimous support of my colleagues for another amendment I offered to fund important carbon monoxide (CO) safety outreach. CO poisoning is a serious concern. As the agency reported just last month, in 2019 there were an estimated 250 unintentional non-fire CO poisoning deaths associated with the use of consumer products. This safety campaign will target populations and areas of the United States, including tribes and tribal lands, that are disproportionately harmed by CO poisoning from consumer products.
There are many other good ideas in this plan, including additional spending to help us understand the dangers posed by lithium-ion batteries used in micro-mobility and other devices. I will continue to work with my colleagues and our staff in the coming months to make sure we are setting the right priorities and providing the resources needed to protect children and other vulnerable groups from unsafe products.