Earlier this week, President Trump announced that he was nominating “former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle to serve as chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.” For those unfamiliar with her, Buerkle is a Republican who has spent the last handful of years involved in politics. She “represented the Syracuse area for one term in Congress in 2011 and 2012,” and has “been serving as acting chair on the commission since February.”
Earlier this week, President Trump announced that he was nominating “former Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle to serve as chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.” For those unfamiliar with her, Buerkle is a Republican who has spent the last handful of years involved in politics. She “represented the Syracuse area for one term in Congress in 2011 and 2012,” and has “been serving as acting chair on the commission since February.”
If the Senate confirms this new appointment, she will “serve a new seven-year term overseeing the independent agency charged with protecting the public from hazardous consumer products.” However, despite the fact that the appointment would be new, Buerkle isn’t unfamiliar with would the job would entail. Back in 2013, she was appointed to the commission by President Obama to fill an “unexpired term of a Republican commission member.” Because she’s still carrying out that term at the moment, her new term wouldn’t begin until “Oct. 27 if her nomination is approved,” the same month that her existing appointment is set to expire.
But who is Buerkle, exactly? Well, for starters she is 66-years old and heralds from Onondaga Hills. Throughout her life, she has “been a longtime advocate for reducing the regulatory burden on small businesses.” During her time working on the commission, she has continuously “opposed the idea of increasing civil penalties against companies that break federal safety regulations for consumer products.”
Before her time in politics, Buerkle worked as an RN shortly after finishing school at “St. Joseph’s Hospital School of Nursing in 1972.” In 1977, she attended Le Moyne College where she earned her bachelor’s degree and in 1994 “she graduated from the Syracuse University College of Law.”
From there she secured a job as an “assistant New York state attorney general from 1997 through 2009,” and soon after announced that she was running for the “Republican nomination in the 25th Congressional District.” She secured that seat in 2010 in an election against Democrat U.S. Rep. Dan Maffei and served one term before losing to Maffei in 2012.
So that’s a little summary of who Buerkle is, but what is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), and why is it important? The answer to that is simple enough. The CPSC is an organization whose primary objective is to “protect the public from consumer products.” For example, back in March of this year, the CPSC “announced a new federal standard for infant bath tubs” and issued a warning for fidgets spinners that have reportedly caught fire.
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Trump nominates Ann Marie Buerkle to chair Consumer Product Safety Commission
Trump nominates Auburn native Ann Marie Buerkle to lead Consumer Product Safety Commission
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