In 2008, after lead-contaminated toys and other products from China wound up on American store shelves and forced product recalls, Congress rushed to pass legislation intended to protect Americans, giving the Consumer Product Safety Commission — a small and relatively unknown federal agency– sweeping new regulatory authority. Now, nearly seven years after that scare, it is increasingly clear that the new powers hastily granted to the CPSC in a period of panic and confusion have led to costly regulatory burdens with questionable real benefits to consumers. In part, this is because the agency I formerly headed is increasingly assuming regulatory authority over matters that it is ill-equipped to manage and which prevent the agency from concentrating on actual product hazards. Read more.
