Rick Trumka Jr. Nominated to Fill Final Seat for U.S. CPSC

This article contains excerpts from a press release issued by the White House on July 13, 2021.

July 16, 2021 | The Biden Administration announced its intent to nominate Rich Trumka Jr. as commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on July 13, 2021. Trumka currently serves as general counsel & staff director of the economic and consumer policy subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Reform, where he works on oversight and investigations related to consumer protection, consumer product safety, and public health. He previously served as assistant attorney general in the Consumer Protection Division of the Maryland Office of the Attorney General and as a litigation attorney in private practice. He is the son of the president of the AFL-CIO, the largest federation of labor unions in the U.S. Trumka is expected to replace outgoing Democratic Commissioner Elliot Kaye.

Democratic nominations for the CPSC. Alexander Hoehn-Saric, chief counsel for communications and consumer protection for the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, and Mary Boyle, executive director of the CPSC, were previously named. Hoehn-Saric was also nominated to serve as CPSC chairman, replacing outgoing Acting Chairman Bob Adler who announced his retirement earlier this year. Boyle fills the current vacant seat on the Commission.

The timing of Senate consideration of their nominations has not been specified. If approved, it will mark the first time the CPSC has had all five seats filled since 2019 and give Democrats a 3:2 majority. The Commission is currently evenly split 2:2 between Democratic- and Republican-appointed Commissioners.

“The toy industry has a long history of working cooperatively with the CPSC and we look forward to working with each of the nominees as they are confirmed,” said Ed Desmond, executive vice president of external affairs at The Toy Association.