What are they arguing about? Posted by Don Mays at 07/02/08 09:00 AM

The House and Senate versions of the product safety bill (HR 4040) are not the same, and the differences matter. Before the final bill can be signed into law, the differences between the two bills need to be ironed out. To understand why we want the strongest bill to become the final law, it might help to outline some of the big differences and the items that remain unresolved after months of negotiation.

Let's start by saying that both versions will improve our very broken product safety system. Both give more resources to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, and both reduce children's exposure to lead in toys and other children's products.

But the House bill is stronger in a few key ways. It gives the CPSC the authority to immediately cease the distribution of recalled products when it determines they pose a significant risk to public safety. The Senate bill has no such emergency provision. The House bill also contains strong conflict-of-interest provisions like an outright ban on industry-paid travel by CPSC members and employees and inspection of proprietary testing laboratories. Finally, it requires the agency to run television and radio ads so that people will know when unsafe products have been recalled. Currently, most recalled products stay in circulation, and most people don't go check the items in their home against agency lists.

On the other hand, the Senate version contains some necessary provisions that are not in the House version. For example, on May 28th, the National Association of Attorneys General filed this comment, asking the conference committee to clarify that it does not intend to limit existing state powers to adopt safety regulations for a state's citizens.

Say the AGs:

...we believe that in enacting H.R. 4040 Congress intends that the new federal enforcement powers will supplement existing state enforcement authorities, not displace them. Section 20(d) of the Senate version of H.R. 4040 makes it clear that the new federal enforcement tools are meant to coexist with current state authority:

"Nothing in this section shall prevent the attorney general of a State from exercising the powers conferred on the attorney general, or other authorized State officer, by the laws of such State. Nothing in this section shall prohibit the attorney general of a State, or other authorized State officer, from proceeding in State or Federal court on the basis of an alleged violation of any civil or criminal statute of that State."

Without this clarifying language, the new law could inadvertently impede the ability of state officials to protect the safety of our children. We therefore urge Congress to include this important provision in the final version of the bill.

The Senate bill also makes all toy companies abide by a toy safety and testing standard that is currently only optional. Although this existing standard was created with toy company input and is already in use by most companies, the House version of the bill would only require the agency to study it. As millions of toys continue to be recalled, this toy testing standard should be applied to all toy companies now—this would be safer for consumers and more fair to the toy companies that are already abiding by it.

And finally, only the Senate bill actually requires the immediate creation of a public, online database of reported safety problems. We believe that you have a right to information about new product hazards so that you can be an informed purchaser, and so the information that other consumers already know and have experienced can be shared with others.

Some of these differences have already been resolved by the conferees, but the application of safety standards to all toys, the public database of safety problems, and the question of state authority remain on the table. That's why we need your help! Take a moment to make that phone call.

comments (2)

1 Posted by MG at 07/08/08 11:08 PM

It's not just toys. It is Christmas ornaments,
craft products, and the blue storage tubs emmiting fumes.
Crafters are getting COPD

2 Posted by newbie at 08/06/08 01:36 PM

Not sure if I know what I'm talking about yet, but "imports will be scrutinized" in Consumers Union's email really got my attention. My fear is that it only means that foreign products are not going to be held the same standard as those made in America.
If all foreign products are not stopped, DEAD, at the border until they're deemed equally, at least, as safe as American products, then they're not worthy of acceptance on our stores' shelves. Are we being scammed again?
Make the "standard" as tough as you want, but American workers, I believe, will always strive to make a safer, better product for their fellow Americans or anyone else .... and if they don't, they're right here to be prosecuted for it.
Slave labor, wherever it exists, will only (continue to) enslave us.