Trump Nominates New CPSC Commissioner
On October 2, 2025, after the federal government shut down, the Senate received President Trump’s nomination for a new commissioner at the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC or Commission)—William “Billy” Hewes III, former mayor of Gulfport, Mississippi. This recent nomination came as a surprise, since for the last few months, it was not clear if President Trump would in fact nominate a replacement for former Republican Commissioner Douglas Dziak (who stepped down in August, before the end of his term) or seek to fill the seat vacated by Mary Boyle (one of the recently fired Democratic commissioners whose term ends October 27, 2025).
As we previously wrote, the President’s FY 2026 Discretionary Budget Request proposed to reorganize CPSC and embed it under the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), with one chief officer serving as the “Assistant Secretary for Consumer Product Safety” (ASCPS). Although this type of restructuring would require legislative action, leadership changes at the Commission suggested steps were being taken towards this type of consolidation despite the lack of any such legislation. The Supreme Court’s July 2025 decision staying the reinstatement of three fired Democratic CPSC commissioners pending litigation in the Fourth Circuit, and the subsequent resignation of former Commissioner Dziak in August, left the agency operating with a sole commissioner, Republican Acting Chairman Peter Feldman, whose term will expire in October 2026. Dziak and Feldman voted to approve interim delegations to the acting chair of the Commission’s adjudicatory enforcement authorities, civil and criminal enforcement authorities, and regulatory authorities to allow the CPSC to continue its work with just one commissioner prior to Dziak’s departure.
However, it now appears that the administration intends to fill Dziak’s vacated seat at the CPSC with Hewes. Hewes’ expertise in the area of product safety is unclear, but he is an experienced legislator, having served in the Mississippi State Senate from 1992 – 2012 and as mayor of Gulfport from 2013 – June 2025. He has a background in real estate and insurance, is a member of the Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce, and serves on the Board of the South Mississippi Planning and Development District.
If he is approved, Hewes’ term as CPSC commissioner will expire October 26, 2031. It remains to be seen what impact his appointment might have on the administration’s plans to incorporate CPSC into HHS. As noted above, any such plan would need legislative action, but no such legislation was introduced as of this writing. To the extent Hewes is confirmed, but the Commission continues to operate without a quorum of three commissioners, the delegations of authority above generally require the individual serving as chair to obtain the concurrence of another commissioner serving on the Commission before exercising the delegated authority.