Sponsors (2)
Introduced May 8, 2025 by John R. Curtis · Last progress May 8, 2025
The bill improves gate safety and regulatory clarity through adoption of recognized standards, faster standard updates, outreach, and clearer definitions, but it raises compliance and retrofit costs, can concentrate technical rule‑making with limited stakeholder review, and will require agency resources to implement.
Homeowners, renters, children (including in schools), and building occupants will face fewer gate-related injuries because covered gates must meet recognized ASTM/ANSI/UL safety standards and CPSC can update standards to address hazards.
Consumers, manufacturers, and installers gain clearer regulatory certainty because voluntary standard revisions can automatically become the federal standard absent CPSC objection, speeding safety updates and reducing ambiguity about which technical rules apply.
Homeowners, schools, contractors, and retailers will get targeted guidance and outreach (low-cost prevention methods, installation guidance, and materials for building officials) that can reduce injury risk and help industry lower liability exposure.
Manufacturers and small businesses will face higher compliance costs to meet required standards and new definitions, which will likely raise prices for gates and installations and may force retrofit or replacement costs on homeowners, schools, and building owners.
Automatic federal adoption of private voluntary standards can reduce time for stakeholder review and create lock‑in of technical requirements that may become outdated or favor particular vendors, limiting broader input and competition.
CPSC will need to devote staff time and resources to develop and run outreach campaigns and materials, which may increase federal spending or divert agency capacity from other priorities.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Directs CPSC to adopt binding safety standards for a broad set of gates using specified ASTM/UL standards, allow automatic adoption of voluntary revisions, and run a national safety education campaign.
Requires the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue a final, binding safety standard for a broad set of gates within one year, basing requirements on specified ASTM and UL standards (as of Jan 1, 2025, or their successors). It also creates an automatic adoption process for revisions to voluntary standards, directs the CPSC to run a national education and awareness campaign about gate hazards and prevention, and defines terms such as which gates are covered and who counts as a building official. The bill affects manufacturers, installers, retailers, building officials, and gate owners/operators by setting mandatory product-safety requirements, requiring notice and possible automatic adoption of voluntary standard updates, and funding an outreach campaign (with required reporting to Congress). Deadlines: final CPSC rule within 1 year, education campaign to start within 2 years, and a CPSC report to Congress within 3 years.