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Rachel Weintraub to Become First Executive Director for Newly Bolstered CSS

For Immediate Release: Feb. 22, 2023

Contact: David Rosen, drosen@citizen.org

WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS) is excited to announce that longtime expert consumer and regulatory policy advocate Rachel Weintraub will lead the coalition as its first executive director.

Weintraub led the CSS lobbying committee for the past several years from her perch as legislative director and general counsel at Consumer Federation of America (CFA), which co-chairs the coalition with Public Citizen. Now she will lead the coalition into a new era as it incorporates as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization and takes on the challenges of making our federal rulemaking process more effective, transparent, equitable, and responsive to the public.

“I am thrilled to lead the Coalition of Sensible Safeguards into its next chapter,” said Weintraub. “CSS has consistently been the center of information, expertise, and advocacy around regulatory issues relevant to the public interest community, and I look forward to expanding the coalition’s outreach, making its advocacy more robust, and increasing its relevance to all stakeholders.”

“Rachel Weintraub is the consummate consumer advocate, demonstrated by her many legislative and regulatory accomplishments over her 20+ years at CFA,” said Susan Weinstock, president and CEO of the Consumer Federation of America and co-chair of the coalition. “CSS has gained a leader who brings her vast expertise to ensure that the regulatory process in the U.S. benefits consumers.”

“Rachel Weintraub is a fierce advocate – a leading thinker, strategist, lobbyist, and coalition builder,” said Robert Weissman, president of Public Citizen and co-chair of the coalition. “The Coalition of Sensible Safeguards is thrilled to have Rachel take the helm of the coalition at a moment when regulatory action is so desperately needed to advance health, safety, and justice priorities – and when courts and corporate cronies in Congress are threatening to shut down rulemaking and regulatory agencies altogether.”

Weintraub worked with Consumer Federation of America since 2002, where she primarily focused on product safety issues and established her deep expertise as a consumer advocacy leader. She represented the organization on behalf of consumers before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Congress, state legislatures, and voluntary standard setting organizations. Weintraub also worked on financial services, administrative law, supported advocacy staff, and addressed internal legal issues at the organization. In 2022, she was honored with the Consumer Champion Award.

Prior to that, Weintraub worked as a consumer advocate with the U.S. Public Interest Research Group from September 1999 until December 2001, representing consumers on product safety and health care issues.

In 1999, she graduated from the Boston University School of Law with a J.D. She spent her last year of law school at the Georgetown University Law Center where she also worked as a research assistant for the Federal Legislation Clinic. In 1996, Weintraub graduated phi beta kappa and magna cum laude with a B.A. from Binghamton University in New York.

Weintraub’s work has had a profound impact on public policy, consumer protection, product safety, and the consumer community at large. Her advocacy has led to improved regulation of our consumer products, greater product protections for children and their families, and improved safety in the marketplace – all of which has saved countless lives.

The Coalition for Sensible Safeguards is an alliance of more than 160 consumer, labor, scientific, research, faith, community, environmental, small business, good government, public health, and public interest groups – representing millions of Americans. Member groups are joined in the belief that our country’s system of regulatory safeguards should secure our quality of life, pave the way for a sound economy, and benefit us all.