GAO Proposes Single Administrator for Consumer Product Agency

WASHINGTON — The Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency charged with protecting the public from dangerous products in the marketplace, should be changed from a five-member commission to one headed by a single administrator, a report from the General Accounting Office has recommended.

“Most other agencies responsible for protecting the public’s health and safety are organized under a single administrator,” said the study, conducted by the congressional watchdog agency and released Sunday by Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Los Angeles), who requested the investigation.

‘Would Be Less Costly’

“A single administrator would be less costly, and most people we interviewed, including all former (commission) chairpersons, favored a single administrator,” the report added. Changing the structure, the GAO said, “would save about $1 million a year.”

Waxman, a member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which oversees the commission, agreed, saying that, as a result of cuts in the commission budget by the Reagan Administration, “the agency simply cannot afford the luxury of a complement of highly paid commissioners and their staff.”

While Waxman traditionally has supported the concept of multimember commissions, he said that he now believes the Consumer Product Safety Commission is too small to justify such a structure and favors a single administrator for economic reasons.

“In other contexts, I still see the wisdom of collegial regulatory bodies,” Waxman said. “Unfortunately, this wisdom doesn’t apply to the CPSC under this Administration. The agency is top heavy--it’s time to lighten the load.”

In fiscal 1974, the commission’s first full year of operation, it received an appropriation of $34.8 million and had the equivalent of 786 full-time positions, according to the report. Until fiscal 1982, the staffing level remained stable, while appropriations increased slightly, the GAO said. Since 1982, however, staffing has been reduced to 527 positions.

Appropriation Cut

Further, in fiscal 1982, the commission’s appropriation was cut from $42.1 million to $31.8 million--less than that of the commission’s first year. There has been little change in funding since then, the GAO said.

“It makes no sense to have commissioners to review staff work if there is not enough staff to do the agency’s work,” Waxman said. “Let’s spend the money on scientists and engineers, not on political cronies of the White House.”

Changing the commission structure would require congressional action, and Waxman is expected to introduce such legislation.

The commission’s principal responsibility is the regulation of an estimated 15,000 consumer products excluding food, drugs and cosmetics, pesticides, automobiles, and firearms, alcohol and tobacco, which come under the jurisdiction of other federal agencies.