{"id":1264,"date":"2019-02-06T09:27:12","date_gmt":"2019-02-06T09:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/?p=1264"},"modified":"2019-02-05T18:30:31","modified_gmt":"2019-02-05T18:30:31","slug":"peter-feldman-consumer-product-safety","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/2019\/02\/06\/peter-feldman-consumer-product-safety\/","title":{"rendered":"To Serve and Protect"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are two paths for those drawn to public service, says Peter Feldman \u201904. One is the more visible approach of running for public office. \u201cThe other,\u201d Feldman says, \u201cis developing the policy expertise to do the behind-the-scenes hard work that goes into making government run well.\u201d As a newly confirmed commissioner of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Feldman has committed himself firmly to the latter path. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cCPSC is a small but important federal agency with broad jurisdiction to protect consumers,\u201d Feldman says. The agency covers items as diverse as children\u2019s toys, power tools, and household cleaners. \u201cIt essentially includes all articles for household and personal use, except those regulated by other agencies like food and automobiles,\u201d Feldman says. He earned a nomination by President Donald Trump last June and was confirmed to the post in September, creating a Republican majority on the five-person committee for the first time in 12 years. Although much of electoral politics is fraught with polarization, he sees his role as working across the aisle to clear unsafe products out of the marketplace. \u201cThat places a strong emphasis on collaboration and bipartisan coalition building,\u201d he says. <\/span><\/p>\n

At Colgate, Feldman was a Spanish<\/a> and geography<\/a> major. Afterward, he joined the office of Ohio Sen. Mike DeWine, where Feldman worked on the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act, a law to fix defective pool drain covers that caused drownings of children. \u201cSince the act was passed, there have been zero fatalities in public swimming pools associated with that sort of suction entrapment in drains,\u201d Feldman says. \u201cIt was a real sense of accomplishment.\u201d He continued to focus on consumer safety issues throughout his career as a congressional staffer, earning a law degree at American University along the way. <\/span><\/p>\n

As a commissioner on the CPSC, Feldman hopes to modernize its approach for the digital age. For example, an increasing number of products are sold online, but it\u2019s unclear whether those platforms have the same obligation as brick-and-mortar stores to report potential product defects. <\/span><\/p>\n

In addition, the Internet of Things has introduced new dangers into household objects that are now connected online. \u201cThere are a number of potential new defects that could be caused by bad coding,\u201d Feldman says. Those include electrical and fire hazards, among other potential issues, and may require new fixes. \u201cThat remedial action might come in the form of an over-the-air update, which is very different than a traditional product recall.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Even while it adjusts to new challenges, however, the agency\u2019s mission remains the same \u2014 to ensure that the products we use are safe. \u201cIn order to best protect Americans, we need to make sure our decisions are based on sound science and good data to withstand scrutiny,\u201d he says. \u201cUltimately, that safety mission is not a partisan issue.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Peter Feldman ’04, newly-appointed commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, discusses the responsibility of a career in public service.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1221,"featured_media":899,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[296,95],"coauthors":[153],"class_list":["post-1264","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-alumni-updates","tag-government","tag-politics"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/palXSH-ko","amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2018\/09\/ALUMNI-CPSC.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1264"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1264\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1264"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1264"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.colgate.edu\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=1264"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}