Senator Susan Collins today joined a bipartisan group of her colleagues in introducing legislation to better protect children and consumers from unsafe toys and other products by strengthening the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and providing the agency with the tools to better carry out its mission. The “Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act” was coauthored by Senators Mark Pryor (D-AR), Ted Stevens (R-AK), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), and Senator Collins and is expected to be soon considered by the full Senate.
The bill includes a number of provisions that were authored by Senator Collins based on the investigation of her Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs staff into the safety of children’s toys and other consumer products. For example, the legislation gives the federal government the authority to stop imports that pose a danger to American consumers.
Senator Collins’ initiated her investigation following several significant toy recalls last summer, which highlighted the need for a better system to track and recall potentially dangerous consumer products.
“This legislation addresses the serious need to better identify toys and other products that are a safety hazard to our children and American consumers. My committee’s investigation concluded that the Consumer Product Safety Commission lacks the resources and authority to help ensure the safety of more than 15,000 consumer products for which the agency is responsible. The investigation also concluded that it is critical for government agencies to share information and coordinate operations with other government agencies, such as the Customs and Border Protection, so that unsafe goods can be identified and stopped at our ports, long before they reach store shelves or make their way into American homes,” said Senator Collins.
“I commend the hard work of Senators Pryor, Stevens, and Inouye who all worked to bring this bill to fruition. And it is my hope that the Senate considers this bill as soon as possible,” Senator Collins added.
Senator Pryor said, “Senator Collins has long been a strong advocate for our children, and I appreciate her leadership to help stem the tide of dangerous toys and products flooding our markets today,” Pryor said. “This legislation infuses the agency with new resources, imposes testing requirements on children’s products, and arms the public with faster information when a potential problem emerges. Most of all, the safeguards in this bill should give parents piece of mind that they aren’t buying the next deathtrap disguised as a toy.”
Specifically, Senator Collins’ provisions that are included in the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act are as follows:
• It provides CBP the authority to seize and destroy consumer products that come through American ports if those shipments are deemed to pose a substantial hazard.
• The bill directs the CPSC to develop a comprehensive risk assessment plan to help Customs and Border Protection identify and screen imported consumer items that may pose a threat to consumer safety. The Committee’s investigation found that current efforts are haphazard and often fail to carefully screen potentially dangerous or unsafe products based on all available information.
• The bill requires that CPSC share information with Customs and Border Protection (CBP) about importers that are known to have a history of sending unsafe products to the U.S., enabling CBP to better identify potentially unsafe shipments.
• It directs the CPSC to assign an official to the National Targeting Center and CBP to better share information on a real time basis and it provides additional personnel resources to ensure this assignment.
Other highlights of the bill include:
• Increased Funding for CPSC: Authorizes 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;
• Increases the civil and criminal fines and penalties for those who knowingly violate product safety laws. penalty cap up to $20 million from the current level of $1.8 million;
• Testing: Require third party safety certification of children’s products. Upon CPSC approval, proprietary labs will be allowed to test products if they would provide equal or greater consumer protection than the manufacturer’s use of a third party lab. Makes mandatory current toy safety standards promulgated by ASTM International, an independent standard-setting organization, and requires that toys be certified to the standards;
• Labeling: Require manufacturers to label children’s products with tracking information useful to consumers and retailers in identifying recalled products;
• Bans lead in all children’s products;
• Allows a 2-member quorum for the CPSC 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;
• Make it unlawful for retailers to sell a recalled product.