15 U.S.C. § 2058 - Procedure for consumer product safety rules

• Cite as: 15 U.S.C. § 2058

(a) Commencement of proceeding; publication of prescribed notice of proposed rulemaking; transmittal of notice

A proceeding for the development of a consumer product safety rule may be commenced by the publication in the Federal Register of an advance notice of proposed rulemaking which shall-

(1) identify the product and the nature of the risk of injury associated with the product;

(2) include a summary of each of the regulatory alternatives under consideration by the Commission (including voluntary consumer product safety standards);

(3) include information with respect to any existing standard known to the Commission which may be relevant to the proceedings, together with a summary of the reasons why the Commission believes preliminarily that such standard does not eliminate or adequately reduce the risk of injury identified in paragraph (1);

(4) invite interested persons to submit to the Commission, within such period as the Commission shall specify in the notice (which period shall not be less than 30 days or more than 60 days after the date of publication of the notice), comments with respect to the risk of injury identified by the Commission, the regulatory alternatives being considered, and other possible alternatives for addressing the risk;

(5) invite any person (other than the Commission) to submit to the Commission, within such period as the Commission shall specify in the notice (which period shall not be less than 30 days after the date of publication of the notice), an existing standard or a portion of a standard as a proposed consumer product safety standard; and

(6) invite any person (other than the Commission) to submit to the Commission, within such period as the Commission shall specify in the notice (which period shall not be less than 30 days after the date of publication of the notice), a statement of intention to modify or develop a voluntary consumer product safety standard to address the risk of injury identified in paragraph (1) together with a description of a plan to modify or develop the standard.

The Commission shall transmit such notice within 10 calendar days to the appropriate Congressional committees.

(b) Voluntary standard; publication as proposed rule; notice of reliance of Commission on standard

(1) If the Commission determines that any standard submitted to it in response to an invitation in a notice published under subsection (a)(5) if promulgated (in whole, in part, or in combination with any other standard submitted to the Commission or any part of such a standard) as a consumer product safety standard, would eliminate or adequately reduce the risk of injury identified in a notice under subsection (a)(1), the Commission may publish such standard, in whole, in part, or in such combination and with nonmaterial modifications, as a proposed consumer product safety rule.

(2) If the Commission determines that-

(A) compliance with any standard submitted to it in response to an invitation in a notice published under subsection (a)(6) is likely to result in the elimination or adequate reduction of the risk of injury identified in the notice, and

(B) it is likely that there will be substantial compliance with such standard,

the Commission shall terminate any proceeding to promulgate a consumer product safety rule respecting such risk of injury and shall publish in the Federal Register a notice which includes the determination of the Commission and which notifies the public that the Commission will rely on the voluntary standard to eliminate or reduce the risk of injury, except that the Commission shall terminate any such proceeding and rely on a voluntary standard only if such voluntary standard is in existence. For purposes of this section, a voluntary standard shall be considered to be in existence when it is finally approved by the organization or other person which developed such standard, irrespective of the effective date of the standard. Before relying upon any voluntary consumer product safety standard, the Commission shall afford interested persons (including manufacturers, consumers, and consumer organizations) a reasonable opportunity to submit written comments regarding such standard. The Commission shall consider such comments in making any determination regarding reliance on the involved voluntary standard under this subsection.

(c) Publication of proposed rule; preliminary regulatory analysis; contents; transmittal of notice

No consumer product safety rule may be proposed by the Commission unless the Commission publishes in the Federal Register the text of the proposed rule, including any alternatives, which the Commission proposes to promulgate, together with a preliminary regulatory analysis containing-