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41 Admin. L. Rev. 61 (1989)
From Model Agency to Basket Case - Can the Consumer Product Safety Commission Be Redeemed

handle is hein.journals/admin41 and id is 71 raw text is: 61
FROM MODEL AGENCY
TO BASKET CASE-
CAN THE CONSUMER
PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION
BE REDEEMED?
Robert S. Adler*
he Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is the newest'
and   smallest2 of the federal health      and   safety regulatory
*Associate Professor of' Legal Studies, Graduate School of Business Administration,
University of North Carolina. A.B. University of' Pennsylvania; J.D. University of
Michigan. The author served as an attorney-advisor to two commissioners on the
Consumer Product Safety Commission from 1973-84, and as Counsel to the Subcom-
mittee on Health and the Environment of the House Energy and Commerce Commit-
tee from 1985-87.
This article  xpands upon a chapter written by the author for a report by the
Democracy Project entitled Blueprints for America: Transition '89. The views expressed
herein are solely those of the author.
'Established in 1972 by the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA), Pub. L. No.
92-573, 86 Stat. 1207 (codified as amended at 15 U.S.C. §§ 2051-83 (1982 & Supp. IV
1986)), the CPSC was the first independent commission since the clays of the New Deal
created for the purpose of imposing federal regulation on an established area of
commercial activity. Scalia & Goodman. Procedural Aspects of'the Consumer Product Safe(lv
Act, 20 U.C.L.A. L. REv. 899, (1973).
'For Fiscal Year 1989, the CPSC requested a budget of $32.9 million and 532 staff.
Current Report, 16 Prod. Safety & Liab. Rep. (BNA) 203 (February 26, 1988). This is
roughly half the budget of the Federal Trade Commission, the next smallest federal
regulatory agency. See Consumer Product Safety Commission Reauthorization: Hearings Before
the Subcomm. on Health and the Environment of the House Comm. on Energy and Commerce,
99th Cong., 1st Sess. 83 (1985) [hereinafter 1985 House Reauthorization Hearingsl
(printed in Health and the Environment Miscellaneous (Part 1): Hearings BeJore the
Subcommittee on Health and the Environment of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce,
99th Cong., 1st Sess. 1-271 (1986)). In 1985, the Subcommittee on Health and the
Environment of the House Energy and Commerce Committee listed relative budget
sizes for the major federal health and safety agencies:
Agency                                                    FY 1986 Budget
Environmental Protection Agency                           $2,268 million
Occupational Safety and Health Administration                213 million
Food and Drug Administration                                 409 million
Federal Trade Commission                                      64 million

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