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Richard Trumka, Jr., nominated by President Biden for a seat on the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), was confirmed Tuesday evening, November 16, 2021, by a unanimous voice vote in the Senate. When he takes his oath of office, which will likely be within a week or two, Trumka will take the seat of fellow Democrat and former Acting Chair Bob Adler, whose term expired October 27 (though he could have held over up to a year or until Trumka was confirmed).

Trumka, son of the late labor leader Richard Trumka, Sr., served as General Counsel & Staff Director of the Economic and Consumer Policy Subcommittee of the U.S. House of Representatives’ Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Adler has been associated with CPSC since its creation, having served as a staffer to two Commissioners in the 1970s, and he has served two terms in that office himself, joining the Commission in 2009.

Trumka’s arrival will still leave the Commission one short of its full five-member complement and at a 2-2 party count. Mary Boyle, currently the agency’s Executive Director but nominated for the vacant seat on the body, has not yet been voted out of the Senate Commerce Committee. With less than three weeks left on the current Senate calendar, it is unclear if time remains for Boyle to clear both the committee and the Senate floor. If she does not, her nomination would be returned to the White House as the 117th Congress concludes its first session at the end of the year. At that point, President Biden may renominate her or may choose to go in a different direction.

If Boyle is ultimately confirmed, the Commissioners and their terms would be as follows through the current Biden Administration:

Biden Consumer Product Safety Commission
Commissioner Term Through
Dana Baiocco (R) 2024
Mary Boyle (D) if confirmed 2025
Peter Feldman (R) 2026
Alexander Hoehn-Saric (D, Chair) 2027
Richard Trumka, Jr. (D) 2028