WASHINGTON — The Senate today passed legislation sponsored by Senate Commerce Committee Chairman Daniel K. Inouye (D-HI), Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), Senate Commerce Committee Vice Chairman Ted Stevens (R-AK), and Senator Susan Collins (R-ME) that will protect children and consumers from toxic toys and other dangerous products.
“I thank Senator Pryor and Senator Stevens for their leadership in negotiating this bipartisan compromise bill. S. 2663 authorizes the appropriate level of resources and provides the new authorities necessary for the agency to do the job it was created to do: protect consumers,” Inouye said. “Children are dying and suffering grievous injuries because of unsafe products. This legislation directly addresses the weaknesses of our nation’s product safety system and is a good step forward in our effort to keep harmful products off of store shelves.”
Pryor applauded Senate passage of S. 2663, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Reform Act of 2008, which will provide assurance to parents that the toys and products they bring into their homes are safe. Among its provisions, the legislation infuses the CPSC with new resources and authority, requires mandatory testing on children’s products, bans lead in children’s toys and arms the public with faster information when a potential problem emerges.
“The CPSC is crippled under budget restraints, mounting imports and thousands of new products entering the marketplace. As a result, we’ve seen endless recalls and unnecessary deaths and injuries,” Pryor said. “My legislation allows parents and the CPSC to fight back against the tide of dangerous toys and products. It provides new safety safeguards that emphasize resources, accountability, disclosure and testing -- from the factory floor to the store shelves. I appreciate the broad, bipartisan support behind this bill and will work toward swift conference action in order to produce a solid, aggressive bill for President Bush to sign.”
Stevens added: “This important legislation will provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission with the tools needed to better protect American consumers. The measure will not only ensure that toys and other products sold in this country are safe, it also sends a strong message that when it comes to our children, safety must come first. I am especially pleased that the bill includes my provision to protect users of all-terrain vehicles by requiring both domestic and foreign ATV companies to comply with the same basic safety standards and sales practices.”
Collins said: “Toy safety has made a giant leap forward with the Senate’s approval of this bipartisan bill to strengthen the federal Consumer Product Safety Commission. This bill will help the federal government better detect and prevent threats to our children before, not after, toys reach store shelves.
“The Homeland Security Committee’s investigation into product safety identified serious gaps in our protections that this bill will fix. It includes provisions I authored giving Customs and Border Protection agents the power to seize and destroy hazardous toys and other unsafe products when they arrive at our ports,” Collins said. “I commend my colleagues, Senators Pryor, Stevens, and Inouye, for their hard work on this important consumer bill.”
Key provisions of the legislation would:
Increase CPSC Resources and Effectiveness
Funding: Authorize funding levels for 7 years starting at $88.5 million in 2009 and increasing at a rate of 10 percent per year through 2015. For 2009 and 2010, an additional $40 million would be authorized to upgrade CPSC’s laboratories and $1 million would be authorized to research the safety of nanotechnology in products
Quorum: Allow a 2-member quorum to conduct official business for 9 months. The CPSC currently is without a quorum and cannot conduct business that requires Commission action such as a mandatory recall. Restores the Commission to five members instead of three members to prevent future absences of quorum
Rulemaking Process: Streamline the product safety rulemaking process to be more timely by eliminating a mandatory “Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking” step
Protect children from lead and unsafe products
Lead: Ban lead in all children’s products
Testing: Require third party safety certification of children’s products. Upon CPSC approval, proprietary labs will be allowed to test products if they provide equal or greater consumer protection than the manufacturer’s use of a third party lab.
Safety Standards: Makes mandatory current toy safety standards promulgated by ASTM International, an independent standard-setting organization, and requires that toys be certified to the standards
Enhance Public Access to Product Safety Information
Database: Establish a database to include any reports of injuries, illness, death or risk related to consumer products submitted by consumers, local, State or national government agencies, child care providers, physicians, hospitals, coroners, first responders, and the media. Allows the CPSC to expedite the disclosure of industry provided information in the interest of public health and safety.
Enable the Assessment of Larger Penalties and Enhance Enforcement of CPSC Statutes
Civil Fines: Increase the civil fine penalty cap up to $20 million from the current level of $1.8 million
Criminal Penalties: Increase criminal penalties to 5 years in jail for those who knowingly and willingly violate product safety laws
Attorneys General: Allow state Attorneys General to obtain injunctive relief on behalf of its residents to enforce product safety laws
Whistleblower Protections: Provide whistleblower protections for employees of manufacturers to shed light on any problems along the supply chain
Enhance Recall Effectiveness
Labeling: Require manufacturers to label children’s products with tracking information useful to consumers and retailers in identifying recalled products
Recalled Products: Make it unlawful for retailers to sell a recalled product
Subcontractors: Require companies to identify their subcontractors in the supply chain
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