Since early February, Ann Marie Buerkle has been a beneficiary of the new administration, elevated by President Donald Trump from her Republican seat on the Consumer Product Safety Commission to the role of acting chairwoman.
But, so far, Buerkle s only a nominal leader. While the Democratic heads of other five-member commissions resigned after Trump s election, the CPSC s former chairman, Elliot Kaye, elected to stay on in one of the four remaining seats. The unusual dynamic has prolonged the Democrats majority and occasionally put the agency s acting leader on the losing side of votes.
That could soon change for Buerkle. This week, Trump nominated the former New York congresswoman to serve as the commission s chairwoman in a permanent capacity, putting her in line to lead the agency when Republicans take a majority.
Buerkle s current term is set to expire next year, but if confirmed, she would start a fresh seven-year stint beginning October 2018, according to the White House s announcement. The Trump administration has yet to announce a nominee to replace Democratic Commissioner Marietta Robinson, whose term expires in October of this year.
Here s what to know about Trump s pick to lead the product safety agency.
Buerkle has consistently voted against penalties for late reporting of dangerous product defects. In a statement last year, Buerkle said she had voted in favor of only three of the dozen civil penalties assessed in the previous two years. One might think that I oppose civil penalties as a matter of course but actually my opposition has been for a variety of reasons, she said.
Among them, she said, is a lack of transparency and consistency in how CPSC staff arrive at penalty amounts.
All else equal, I would think that a company that reports before any serious injury has occurred should be subject to a lower penalty than a company that waits until an injury has occurred. Similarly, I would think that a company with a history of noncompliance with reporting requirements would be subject to a higher penalty than one who has a perfect track record, Buerkle said then. Yet when the Office of General Counsel sends up a recommendation for approval of a civil penalty settlement, it often seems as though the staff highlights the aggravating factors that support a higher penalty amount and ignores or downplays the mitigating factors. There appears to be little or no consistency on how factors are treated from case to case.
Her predecessor took a decidedly different approach. Seizing on Congress decision in 2008 to lift the cap on CPSC penalties from $1.8 million to $15 million, Kaye was outspoken in pushing for higher penalties where the facts warrant tougher enforcement. Last year, while cautioning that he did not want the commission to go on a joy ride, Kaye said he wanted civil penalties to reach the double million-dollar digits.