CPSC Nominee Prefers Voluntary Over Mandatory Recalls, and Streamlining Recall Messages
Consumer Product Safety Commission nominee Dana Baiocco vowed to senators on Nov. 1, to err on the side of voluntary recalls over mandatory recalls. During her Senate Commerce Committee confirmation hearing, Baiocco said voluntary recall is one of the most effective programs of the CPSC, and added that mandatory recalls take longer to develop, and should be issued only when the voluntary process fails. CPSC could expedite the voluntary process by “not getting bogged down” in “the details of the written message” all the time, she said.
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Committee Chairman John Thune, R-S.D., said partisanship has plagued CPSC over recent years, and suggested Baiocco’s background as a “no-nonsense litigator” could help her work with other commissioners, including with Democrats across the aisle. Baiocco is a lawyer at Jones Day. “I believe that what I’ve learned in my years of experience … is to zero in and get rid of the nonsense, because our goals here are all the same,” she responded to Thune. “And while the process may differ, depending upon your points of view, at the end of the day, our goal here is to protect the American people, and that cannot be, it shouldn’t be, and it doesn’t even make sense to be, partisan.”
Sen. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., criticized CPSC for previously overlooking data that didn’t fit a desired outcome. Baiocco responded that she would let data, science, statistics, and facts guide her decisions. “You can’t jump to the end simply because it seems like, ‘This is something that we want to promote,’ or it happens to be something that perhaps you’re getting pressure from outside advocacy groups,” she said. “My philosophy always has been to put the product in my hand, touch it, tear it apart, bring it together, find out what it does, what it can do, and what it can’t do.”
Another nominee, Nazakhtar Nikakhtar, nominated for assistant secretary of commerce for industry and analysis in the International Trade Administration, wasn’t asked any questions during the over 2.5-hour confirmation hearing, the vast majority of which saw Democrats challenging -- and Republicans defending -- NASA Administrator nominee Rep. Jim Bridenstine, R-Okla. In a brief interview after the hearing, Nikakhtar said “all options need to be on the table” as far as trade remedies to counter unfair foreign trade practices. “We’re at a critical point in time where … our trading partners aren’t competing fairly, and basically we need to take a look at all the tools we have under our U.S. law and international applications to combat unfair trade,” she said.
Thune said he looks forward to supporting Baiocco’s and Nikakhtar’s nominations. Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., continues to hold the nominations of Nikakhtar and Gilbert Kaplan to be under secretary of commerce for international trade, until the Commerce Department gives more information on the progress of Section 232 investigations into steel and aluminum imports, a Schumer spokesman confirmed. Schumer announced the holds last week (see 1710270015).