Lobbying Continues to Amend the CPSIA

Prompted by the House Subcommittee hearing last Thursday regarding the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA), members of several industries that produce goods for children have stepped up their grassroots efforts to secure changes in the law and its enforcement. The concern about the hearing, which was entitled “Consumer Product Safety Commission Oversight: Current Issues and a Vision for the Future,” stems from the House Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection’s decision to only allow testimony from CPSC chairman Inez Tenenbaum.

More than 100 businesses sent letters to the leadership of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce this week urging them to hear from businesses affected by the CPSIA directly. The letter-writing campaign was organized by the Alliance for Children’s Product Safety. In a statement, Alliance chairman Rick Woldenberg stated, in part: “The main problem, as Chairman Tenenbaum has acknowledged since becoming CPSC chair in June, is that CPSIA forbids CPSC – the government’s own product safety watchdog – from using common sense and considering safety risk when implementing the law. As a result, products ranging from library books, pens and socks to bicycles and ATVs have been pulled off the shelves, not because they cause any danger to kids, but because of the way Congress wrote the law.”

Voicing similar concerns, Steven Levy, president of the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Childrenswear, which represents nearly 130 small manufacturers in the New York area, sent the committee a letter that read: “Because the CPSIA prohibits the CPSC from using risk assessment in enforcing the law, we remain obligated to conduct costly and time-consuming tests to repeatedly prove that our safe products conform to the lead standards. Put simply, these and other burdensome provisions of the CPSIA threaten our ability to remain in business and provide jobs and do nothing to improve product safety.”

“It is our view that the only way to resolve many of these issues is to amend the law to provide for a common sense, risk-based approach,” Levy concludes. “As you know, there have been more than 10 bills introduced in Congress to amend the CPSIA. We strongly urge you to begin the legislative process and provide the appropriate relief.”

Copies of the letters from the Alliance for Children’s Product Safety can be found at www.AmendtheCPSIA.com. For more information about the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Childrenswear, contact Caitlin Andrews at (202) 828-7637 or caitlin.andrews@bgllp.com.

Read the September issue and learn more about: A Spring ’10 trend report A spotlight on new products bowing at ABC Kids Expo The top launches from the New York shows Catching up with the Kids In Distressed Situations charity Plus: Infant and toddler fashion Coming In October: Tools for selling slings and wraps Tips for easing CPSIA compliance Understanding the Canadian consumer Back to the future with tween fashion Plus: hot gifts for tweens and infant hosiery