Stripping Agency Independence Has Condemned Americans to Death

Eliminating independence at the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has condemned scores of Americans to death. For over half a century, this small agency has protected consumers by making the products in your home safe. Now, its captive leadership can abandon its mission at the President’s whim. Safety standards that would have saved hundreds of lives per year, every year going forward, have been sabotaged to serve short-term political goals.

As specified in CPSC’s enabling statute, the agency is supposed to be run by five commissioners, each product safety experts, who are appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. After confirmation, each commissioner’s judgement is protected from inappropriate outside influence. Each Commissioner has a seven-year term and can only be removed for neglect of duty or malfeasance in office. This design protects commissioners from industry pressure to sell out the American people. It means that commissioners can make the best decisions for consumers.

I know exactly how necessary independence is for CPSC commissioners because, until recently, I was one.

Having that independence from corporate lobbyists and politicians alike allowed me to follow my conscience. It provided the freedom to go after powerful and well-connected companies. Independence meant that I did not have to think twice about pushing Tesla to recall its youth all-terrain vehicles that were unsafe for kids or about forcing Amazon to remedy dangerous products that it distributes.

The freedom of independence allowed me to close my door to lobbyists seeking to tear down protections to further enrich their clients. It meant that even the President could not tell me to set aside a life-saving solution as a favor for his friends and campaign donors. The CPSC’s independence ensured that government could work the way that people hope it does: experts making decisions based on evidence and science and with a mission of saving lives.

My colleagues and I exercised that freedom until the moment we were fired. Indeed, it is what got us fired. In the face of immense pressure to force out many of the agency’s expert staff, we said no. When the Department of Government Efficiency tried to implant at our agency, we said no. And when we were told to stop passing consumer-friendly rules, we once again said no. Instead, we advanced a rule to protect people from deadly lithium-ion battery fires. As a result, President Trump illegally fired three of us to seize control of the agency.

Two courts agreed that our firings were clearly illegal and reinstated us to our positions. But the U.S. Supreme Court intervened and stayed the court’s reinstatement order, leaving little doubt that it would soon overrule its 90-year-old precedent that allowed the U.S. Congress to protect the heads of independent agencies from removal without cause.

Now, our five-member commission is down to one. And that one, who years ago was sworn in as an independent commissioner, has renounced his independence, sworn fealty to the White House, and now refers to CPSC as being “under President Trump’s leadership.”

Reasonable minds can differ on what we expect from our government, but no reasonable minds expect it to turn a blind eye to human suffering and deaths that it could easily prevent. Yet, that is what is happening today.

Four major failures illustrate the apathy toward saving American lives demonstrated by the CPSC “under President Trump’s leadership.” The agency had spent years crafting solutions to four problems that have been killing and injuring alarming numbers of Americans: carbon monoxide poisoning from furnaces and boilers, carbon monoxide poisoning from portable generators, toxins in keyboard duster sprays, and amputations from table saws. CPSC was ready to finalize all four solutions by September of 2025.

Unsafe portable generators kill 72 Americans a year. People often run generators in the aftermath of natural disasters that knock out power, unaware that they emit hundreds of times more carbon monoxide than a car’s exhaust. CPSC had a rule at the finish line that would have virtually eliminated these deaths.

Furnaces and boilers kill 21 Americans a year when carbon monoxide escapes its intended vent and enters homes. Entire families have died in their sleep. CPSC had designed a solution that could eliminate those deaths.

Keyboard duster sprays seem harmless, but they use a deadly toxin as a propellant, leading to up to 130 deaths per year. Another CPSC rule at the finish line would have saved all of those lives. In August 2025, CPSC’s acting chair withdrew that rule and several others that “no longer align with agency priorities.”

CPSC also had a rule at the finish line to prevent over 50,000 amputation and bone fracture injuries a year from table saws. In August 2025, this rule was also withdrawn because it did not “align with agency priorities.”

If CPSC was still an independent agency, it could have finalized all four of these rules last September, thereby saving thousands of lives. Historically, these types of decisions have been entrusted to independent agencies because they are too important to be left in the hands of one person, too likely to be corrupted by personal interests or petty politics. Now, a nation is forced to hope that a single person, stripped of the protections that come with independence, has the courage, fortitude, and good judgment to do what is right. Unfortunately, we see what it looks like when they do not. CPSC’s loss of independence has led to your government failing you, and it will cost people their lives.

As one of America’s last independent commissioners, I pray we learn from this dark chapter in our history and correct course the first chance we get.

Richard L. Trumka, Jr., was confirmed as a commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2021.