Richard L. Trumka Jr. is a Commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). He was nominated by President Joseph R. Biden and confirmed by the United States Senate for a 7-year term beginning on October 27, 2021. He began serving as a Commissioner on December 2, 2021.
Prior to joining the Commission, Mr. Trumka served as General Counsel & Staff Director of the United States House Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, Committee on Oversight and Reform. During his tenure, Mr. Trumka focused his consumer protection and public health work on protecting children. He drafted reports on the presence of toxic heavy metals in baby foods that led to government reform on the issue. His report on children’s car booster seats stopped manufacturers from marketing the products for children who did not weigh enough to safely use them. His years-long investigation and oversight of the e-cigarette industry helped bring significant reforms to the previously unregulated products. His investigation into carcinogens in consumer talc products helped push dangerous products off the market. And his report uncovering wasteful government contracts led to over $400 million in taxpayer savings.
In his prior service as an Assistant Attorney General in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General, Mr. Trumka prosecuted companies and their executives for violations of Maryland’s consumer protection laws. He secured substantial judgments for Maryland consumers. And he helped lead multistate data breach investigations affecting consumers nationwide.
Mr. Trumka began his career clerking for the Honorable Berle M. Schiller of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He then went into private practice, focusing on ERISA and litigation.
Mr. Trumka attended Cornell University, where he played football for the Big Red, and graduated with a B.S. in Industrial and Labor Relations. He received his J.D., cum laude, from the Georgetown University Law Center. Mr. Trumka is a member of the Bar in both Maryland and D.C.