Federal agency oversight of consumer product safety is “fragmented” across at least eight agencies—only one of them being the Consumer Product Safety Commission itself—GAO has said, and their jurisdiction is either unclear or overlaps in many cases.
On some matters, agencies regulate different components of or carry out different regulatory activities for the same product, or jurisdiction for a product can change depending on where or how it is used. For example, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration regulates hand-held infant carriers when used as car seats, but CPSC regulates the carriers when used outside of motor vehicles.
In other cases, agencies are involved in issues outside their areas of expertise. The National Institute of Standards and Technology, whose main subject area involves scientific measurement, for example oversees the markings of toy and imitation firearms to distinguish them from real firearms—what GAO said “may be an inefficient use of resources.”
“Agencies reported that the involvement of multiple agencies with various expertise can help ensure more comprehensive oversight by addressing a range of safety concerns. However, agencies also noted some inefficiencies, including the challenges of sharing information across agencies and challenges related to jurisdiction,” said GAO.
The agencies collaborate in some areas but have no formal mechanism to address issues comprehensively, and with such gaps in communication, some potential safety hazards may slip through the cracks of all of them, GAO added.
Its main recommendation was to establish formal coordination mechanism; some of the agencies agreed, others neither agreed nor disagreed.
The report is here: http://www.gao.gov/assets/670/667041.pdf
