The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act reinforces the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s (CPSC) role in protecting consumers from hazardous goods and strengthens regulation of children’s products. The bill raises CPSC funding to $100 million by FY2011 and designates an additional $20 million for renovation of the Commission’s research, development, and testing facility. The legislation enhances the Commission’s recall authority by allowing the CPSC to require a manufacturer to cease distribution of an “imminently hazardous” consumer product. The legislation also increases consumer access to information about hazardous products, while encouraging information sharing among local and federal agencies: the law requires the CPSC to create a database of incidents involving death and serious injury caused by consumer products and authorizes the CPSC to require manufacturers to post notices of recalls on their websites. The bill increases civil penalties for violators of the Consumer Product Safety Act from $1.825 million to $10 million and prohibits state attorneys general from proceeding with a civil or criminal action against a violator of the Consumer Product Safety Act if an action has already been commenced by the CPSC or the Department of Justice. The legislation also bans paint and children’s products that contain more than a minimal amount of lead and expands the definition of children’s products to include all goods that are primarily intended for youths under the age of 12. The legislation mandates independent third-party testing of children’s products to certify that they meet legal standards.
Finally, the legislation includes a provision to prevent preemption of state consumer product safety laws by rules issued by the CPSC.
The Middle-Class Position:
The Middle Class Supports. The millions of dangerous children’s toys recalled in 2007 illustrate how many middle-class families are at risk from the hazardous products widely available on store shelves. By strengthening the CPSC and increasing the resources of an agency that has historically enjoyed stronger financial support, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act begins to respond to the problem. The provision limiting federal preemption of stronger state laws is critical to ensuring that consumers are as well protected as possible against dangerous products.
By providing the CPSC with additional funding through 2011, along with resources to improve its testing facilities, the legislation helps to ensure that consumer products will be properly tested by competent inspectors. Only a fully funded and fully staffed CPSC has any chance of protecting consumers from the more than 15,000 product types that the agency now oversees. The ban on lead in children’s products and the increase in the age level at which a product is considered to be intended for a child will benefit parents who would otherwise be unable to determine if a toy is safe. Independent third-party testing of children’s products prohibits manufacturers from certifying the safety of their own goods, a devious practice that sacrificed consumer safety for easy compliance. By improving the chain of information flowing from manufacturers through the CPSC to consumers, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act helps to ensure that consumers are protected from hazardous goods, knowledgeable about the dangers associated with a product, and informed if a product is recalled.
From the Experts:
“Shackled by the frustrating combination of a far-reaching mandate and the smallest budget of any federal health and safety agency, the commission has been exceptionally vulnerable to the politics of consumer safety…yet the commission’s backbone, its budget, and its statutory authority, have been eviscerated. As this occurred, many of the industries the CPSC oversees flourished…[so that] any time there is a conflict between industry and the CPSC, industry will win. This imbalance goes far to explain why product-related injuries are 45 percent higher today than they were in 1970, when Congress recognized the need for a federal product safety agency.” -E. Marla Felcher, Adjunct Lecturer, Kennedy School of Government (May 15, 2007)
“The legislation represents an important step toward reinvigorating the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to ensure that it can protect all consumers, most importantly our nation’s children. H.R. 4040 sets significant restrictions to protect children from lead in products, and ensures that products intended for children age 12 and under will be tested for lead and other hazards. The legislation also renews the CPSC for the first time in 15 years, providing additional funding and staff that will help the agency carry out its mission.” -American Academy of Pediatrics (December 19, 2007)
Beyond this Bill:
Although the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act addresses the spike in recalls of children’s products in 2007, the legislation falls far short of enacting the comprehensive testing, consumer notification, and enforcement provisions that are essential to protecting consumers from harmful products. For example, the testing of children’s and other consumer products for many hazards remains voluntary rather than mandatory. Consumers are also harmed by allowance for delays in disclosure of information about dangerous consumer products. Several provisions of the bill undermine enforcement power: state attorneys general, who would otherwise complement the Commission’s enforcement authority, are in some instances prohibited from bringing claims on behalf of injured consumers and the Commission can do little to block the importation of unsafe consumer products. Although the bill establishes a database of deaths and serious injuries caused by consumer products, it fails to create a comprehensive catalogue of consumer complaints and adverse events. This conceals information that is vital to consumer safety from concerned citizens and organizations. Finally, the lack of whistleblower protections for employees of the agency and of the industry itself means that these individuals will likely remain silent when they observe negligent oversight at the CPSC and manufacturing practices that endanger consumers. A financially secure CPSC is necessary, but insufficient. Legislators in the House should reconcile the weak provisions of their bill with similar legislation currently in the Senate that bolsters enforcement provisions, provides whistleblower protections, and strengthens disclosure requirements.
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