• Fax-on-Demand. CIC plans to establish a Fax-on-Demand system that would allow citizens with touch-tone telephones and access to a fax machine or fax modem, to call 24-hours a day and have information immediately faxed to them.

• CD-ROM. CIC is working to develop a CD-ROM containing the text and graphics of all CIC publications. Users, including public libraries and individuals with home computers, would be able to easily search this data to quickly find pertinent information.

• Nationwide On-line Telecommunications Services. Putting the information that is available on the CIC BBS onto one or more of these services would allow their members to access the Catalog and information from the publications to read on-line or to download to their own computer. The advantage of these systems is that they provide local access numbers for most of the country and currently are more widely used by average consumers (with more than 6 million members) than are the

Internet or electronic bulletin board systems.

Each of these five efforts underscores the importance of CIC providing Americans access to their government in the emerging information age. CIC is committed to supporting the needs of its public audience and its agency customers by providing additional methods of information dissemination while reducing the overall cost to government.

CONCLUSION

The amount of $2,061,000 requested for fiscal year 1996 is an increase of $57,000 from the fiscal year 1995 amount. This increase of 2.8 percent in appropriated funds will enable CIC to pay the projected additional personnel costs of $40,000 including a 2.4 percent salary increase estimated for fiscal year 1996. The increase will also fund various program adjustments including the additional cost of $24,000 for payment to GSA for administrative services and support. A reduction of $7,000 for various expenses will offset the required increases.

Overall, the Consumer Information Center saves money for both the government and the taxpayer. Centralized promotion and distribution take advantage of economies of scale. Citizens don't waste their time or the government's by misdirecting calls, struggling to find the right offices for the information they need. Federal offices can concentrate on their own programs, without having to be universal information providers. Citizens are empowered and feel more connected to their government and need less help from government programs when needed information is easily available.

Even in an era of government downsizing, working Americans still want and expect government to respond to their information needs. This budget request will enable CIC to continue its important role as the primary dispenser of printed federal government information of interest to the average American. It also provides the necessary funding for CIC to become firmly established as the central source of electronic federal information. CIC is committed to reaching the largest number of people at the lowest possible cost, especially in terms of reducing the expenditure of tax dollars needed to fulfill its mandate. During fiscal year 1996, CIC will continue to build on its successful 25-year track record as a cost-effective channel of relevant and useful information from the federal government to millions of citizens nationwide.

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 1995.

U.S. CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION

ANN BROWN, CHAIRMAN

WITNESSES

MARY SHEILA GALL, VICE CHAIRMAN OF THE COMMISSION
BERT COTTINE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

ERIC RUBEL, GENERAL COUNSEL

Mr. LEWIS. The meeting will come to order.

This afternoon we are pleased to welcome Ms. Ann Brown, Chairman of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and Ms. Mary Sheila Gall, Vice Chairman of the Commission.

Ms. Brown, we will print your entire statement in the record, if that is all right with you, and from there you can present as much of it as you wish. If not all, it will be in the record.

Ms. BROWN. I will just have a short statement for now.
Mr. LEWIS. Then we will get on to questions.

MS. ANN BROWN'S SUMMARY STATEMENT

Ms. BROWN. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I am Ann Brown. You know Miss. Gall. This is Bert Cottine, our Executive Director, and Eric Rubel, General Counsel.

Since there are new members on the subcommittee and you might not be familiar with the CPSC, I want to begin just with a brief summary of what we do and who we are. We were established in 1973 by President Nixon as a five, now three, member independent agency, with a mission to protect the public against unreasonable risk of injury and death from consumer products. We enforce five Federal statutes, and all told we have jurisdiction over 15,000 consumer products which are found in and around the home.

Our task is to prevent unnecessary injuries and death to your loved ones and damage to your homes. Our mission is strictly nonpartisan. Our job is to safeguard your children, families and possessions, and to make your home a safe haven.

I believe the CPSC can fulfill its responsibility to protect the American people from unreasonable risk of injury and death from consumer products without becoming overly invasive. We cannot and should not attempt to protect consumers from every possible risk of injury from consumer products.

There are limits to what government can achieve. Voluntary action is preferable to mandatory, when such action is implemented properly and carried out effectively. The first year on my watch we initiated a grand total of five mandatory regulations. Everything else that we have done has been voluntary and negotiated voluntarily and cooperatively with industry, in order to protect the health and safety of American people in their homes.

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We will use mandatory action when absolutely necessary.

I believe the paradigm for the CPSC in the 1990s is the triangle, where business, consumers and government each have an equal role to play. For its part, the Commission has adopted a balanced approach to regulation, carefully weighing costs, benefits and other relevant factors.

In fact, our statutes already require us to do most of what is now proposed in the regulatory reform legislation. We have adopted a flexible, common sense approach to product safety.

As I have said, we rely on voluntary action whenever possible and use mandatory procedures only as a last resort. We concentrate on protecting the homes and families and in helping consumers to help themselves to assure their own safety. We also emphasize market-oriented solutions to product safety hazards.

Last year I inaugurated a chairman's commendation to firms that voluntarily introduce safety advances which go beyond Commission requirements. And in the past 11 months, I have made four commendations, Procter & Gamble, Sunbeam Plastics, Hasbro Toys, and Toys "R" Us, for their initiatives on product safety.

Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, we are accomplishing all of this with a staff that is half the size it was in 1980, down from 978 employees to 487 in 1995, and a budget that has been cut 60 percent in inflation-adjusted 1983 dollars. We have already been downsized. Today, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and consumer product safety costs the Nation just 44 cents per household. That is less than a pack of lifesavers; and we are really the lifesaver.

Mr. LEWIS. Those cost about 10 cents, don't they?

Ms. BROWN. No, sir, not any more. These are over 50 cents, if you can believe that. You must have bought them when I did.

In fiscal year 1996, the Commission will focus its hazard reduction efforts on bedding and upholstered furniture fires, which are responsible for nearly 1,200 deaths annually, and on sports injuries. And in all of our work, we will stress child safety, for children are least able to protect themselves against hazardous and defective products which can cause death and injury to them. For fiscal year 1996, we will devote more than one-third of our resources to identifying and correcting hazards involving children's products.

As you can see, Mr. Chairman and members of the subcommittee, the CPSC is different from other departments and agencies that will come before you. We give no grants, we make no loans, we award no licenses.

Our constituency is the American people, young and old, rich and poor, urban and rural, for they are the prime beneficiaries of our actions. We are truly engaged in efficiently and effectively protecting the health and safety of our children and our families in their homes. We need and deserve your support for our fiscal year 1996 budget. And we would be delighted to answer any questions you might have.

And, Miss Gall, did you have anything you wanted to add?