The Commission's Compliance and Enforcement (CE) Program has two primary goals: first, to enforce product safety regulations issued by the Commission; and second, to identify and remedy unregulated products that present substantial safety hazards. The Commission maintains an active program to identify violative or defective products, to analyze the risk associated with those products, and, where appropriate, to obtain corrective action. In carrying out its enforcement activities, the staff applies principles of risk-based decision making to assure that its actions are appropriate for the level of hazard presented by the product. Corrective action is achieved by working cooperatively with industry and, as a last resort, through litigation. Cooperative efforts also extend to working with industry to convey regulation requirements through joint CPSC/trade seminars, workshops at trade shows, and other

1995 Base Program:

The CE program for 1995 consists of 187 FTEs and $14.9 million. In 1994, as a result of Commission efforts, over 12.5 million noncomplying or hazardously defective products were subject to a corrective action plan, or stopped from entering the marketplace. The Commission accepted civil penalties totalling $714,000 in 1994 from firms that failed to report hazardous products or sold products which violate specific regulations. 1996 Changes:

In 1996, the CE program continues with a major effort to bolster the program consistent with the administration's goals in reinventing government through the streamlining of technical support. FTEs minimally increase by one and dollars increase by $558,000. The one FTE increase reflects increased technical support to the Section 15 effort. The dollar increase reflects the program share of 1996 inflation costs and program initiatives.

The 1996 subprogram request reflects these changes:

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The Product Safety Assessment subprogram contract fund allocation is increased to properly support Section 15 efforts in those technical areas where the Commission has no or only limited skills or equipment available. This increased funding would enable the Commission to identify hazardous products and work expeditiously with business to address the hazard.

The Section 15 subprogram increase FTE resources by two FTEs to reflect operational and process changes designed to strengthen Section 15 enforcement. The changes will expedite investigations so that more timely voluntary agreements can be reached to remove dangerously defective products from the marketplace. There are also more intensive efforts to identify new sources of investigation leads such as Federal and state courts. These actions will identify firms which have failed to report (the more serious product hazards), as required by Section 15 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA).

The Regulated Products effort retains the same level of effort as in 1995 despite a reduction of two FTEs. Contract support for poison prevention and firework testing activities is increased to reflect increased activities.

Additional funds ($65,000) have been reallocated to fully fund a viable State and local assistance program. These small contracts (total amount is $150,000) to States support CPSC's enforcement work, but also serve as seed money to help develop State involvement in such activities as injury incident investigations or by providing advance alerts to the Commission of potential product problems.

The Product Safety Assessment (PSA) project continues to provide rapid and authoritative technical evaluations of newly identified product hazards. These evaluations are necessary for making substantial product hazard determinations under Sections 15 and 37 of the CPSA and Section 15 of the Federal Hazardous Substance Act (FHSA). Technical assessments evaluate any one or all aspects of the product, such as marketing data, the epidemiology of deaths and injuries, human factors considerations, medical analysis, and engineering design features. This critical activity continues unchanged from 1995, except for a recommended increase of contract funds. This contract support is necessary to provide the technical analysis required for the Section 15 actions.

Under Section 15 and 37 Activities, the Commission continues to obtain information on potentially defective and hazardous products from many sources, including staff investigations, consumer complaints, trade complaints, state and local referrals, leads from coroners, and private sector product liability suits. Once it is determined that a product represents a substantial safety hazard, the staff under the Section 15 subprogram seeks corrective action. In 1995 and 1996, the Commission is taking steps to strengthen the Section 15 program. This included reallocating FTEs from other organizations to the Office of Compliance and Enforcement. In addition, the internal operating procedures were

reviewed and streamlined to provide quicker delivery of vital technical evaluations. Some of these changes include providing direct lines of communication between headquarters staff and field investigators, expedited technical assessments of product hazards, and improvements in computerized support systems. Full benefit of these changes should appear in 1996.

As an example of Section 15 work, incoming incident data in the form of a medical examiner's report of a cradle death and a report of an infant found not breathing in a cradle initiated a staff investigation of the cradle manufacturer involved. Subsequently a recall of 169,000 cradles was announced. Another example involves incident data from various sources which indicated that one child per month dies as a result of being "entangled" or "wrapped" in window covering cords. Commission staff worked closely with the manufacturers and importers to develop a program to provide safety tassels free of charge to eliminate the loops currently in their homes, change future production and initiate an information and education campaign to notify consumers of the strangulation hazard associated with window blind cords.

Fuller use of existing and new sources of information will permit the Commission to identify and address industry under-reporting which continues to be a matter of concern to the Commission. To enable the Commission to identify and evaluate potential hazards, since 1974 CPSA has required manufacturers to report information about hazardous products to the Commission. The CPSA addition of Section 37 and the strengthening of Section 15 gave the Commission expanded tools which should encourage industry reporting.

Under Section 15, the Commission generally obtains voluntary cooperation from firms to remove potentially hazardous consumer products from the marketplace. Where voluntary action is not forthcoming, the Commission uses its litigation option. The agency will continue to attend industry seminars and provide a CPSC pamphlet guide and the recall handbook to assist firms in being aware of their reporting obligations and development of recall programs.

In 1996, additional State and local funds are allocated to enlist the States in expanding the agency's enforcement effort and coverage.

The Commission continues to monitor industry compliance with CPSC rules and regulations and obtains corrective action if violative products are identified. The activities include industry directed information/ education, import surveillance, retail surveillance, firm inspections, sample collections and analysis, product testing, and litigation when appropriate. As noted above, an estimated 650 violative product models will be identified and removed from the marketplace and an estimated 100 product recalls will be initiated involving products that exhibit serious violations. Civil penalties will be assessed against firms that have knowingly violated the law, and seizures, injunctions, and criminal prosecution will be pursued as appropriate to stop the sale of violative products.

In 1996, contract funding is proposed to increase for three efforts: State and local assistance, poison prevention efforts, and fireworks testing. The program effort will remain constant despite a two FTE reduction.

Regulated products enforcement activities fall into one of three categories. The first category covers activities initiated immediately following the effective date of a new regulation developed under the Hazard Assessment and Reduction program. Small parts cautionary labeling for toys intended for children three to six years of age, bicycle helmet standard, and the ban on multi shell aerial devices and the requirement for child resistant disposable cigarette lighters fall into this category.

The second category covers activities based on the agency's comprehensive plan to periodically and systematically assess industry compliance with its rules and regulations. The level of noncompliance among industries regulated by the agency varies from industry to industry, but generally increases when the Commission does not periodically check industry compliance. All activities of this nature are consolidated under the on-going Comprehensive Plan project. The product categories covered in 1996 are over-the-counter medicines subject to Poison Prevention Packaging Act (PPPA) requirements, children's products subject to the flammability solids requirements of the Federal Hazardous Substances Act (FHSA), products covered under the architectural glazing standard, household chemicals subject to FHSA labeling and PPPA packaging requirements and certain furniture (particularly children's furniture) subject to the CPSA lead-in-paint requirements.

The third category of enforcement activities are those initiated based on continued unacceptable levels of noncompliance, incident data and consumer/industry complaints. The 1996 projects falling into this category include toys and children's products, fireworks, Flammable Fabric Act (FFA) enforcement, household chemicals, and PPPA enforcement. Several of the more significant 1996 Regulated Product projects are discussed below.