A White House plan to eliminate a national product safety watchdog would be harmful to American families and businesses, according to U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT).
A proposed budget from the White House calls for eliminating the Consumer Product Safety Commission and for the Department of Health and Human Services to absorb its core functions.
The move would dilute the commission’s work and allow dangerous and unsafe products to remain on store shelves, Blumenthal said, at a forum on the impact of the White House attack on the agency, which monitors the safety of items like toys, cribs and electronics that was held in Washington on Tuesday.
“There is no agency that saves more lives or more money,” he said.
“And right now the administration is about to waste both lives and money by essentially dismantling this agency and strangling it with a lack of funding,” he said,
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump asked the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him to fire the three Democrats on the five-member commission.
He argued that Congressional limits on his ability to fire leaders of independent agencies are an unconstitutional check on his power to control the executive branch.
