Senator Commerce Committee Announces a Bipartisan Agreement on Consumer Product Safety Legislation
On February 15, 2008 the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee issued a press release announcing that Senators Pryor, Stevens, and Inouye reached a bipartisan agreement which they believe will lead to passage of compromise consumer product safety legislation within the next few weeks.
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(An earlier piece of Senate consumer product safety legislation, S. 2045 (also sponsored by Senator Pryor), which did not have bipartisan support, had been reported by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee onDecember 5, 2007.
In addition, on December 19, 2007, the House of Representatives passed its own bill, H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. Generally, in order for a bill to be implemented, identical versions of the same bill must be passed by both the House and Senate and then approved (enacted) by the President.)
Highlights of Senate Bipartisan Legislation
According to the press release and the text of the staff working draft, highlights of this bipartisan Senate legislation include:
Increased civil fines - would increase the civil fine penalty cap up to $20 million from the current level of $1.8 million.
Increased criminal penalties - would increase criminal penalties to 5 years in jail for those who knowingly and willingly violate product safety laws.
3rd party laboratory certification of children's products - would require every manufacturer of a children's product (and the private labeler, if applicable) that is subject to a children's product safety standard, manufactured or imported 60 days after the CPSC publishes procedures, to (a) have the product tested by a qualified 3rd party laboratory and (b) issue a certification that such product meets the applicable, specified safety standard.
Ban on children's product imports without 3rd party certification - would prohibit imports of children's products not accompanied by a 3rd party testing certification.
ASTM toy safety standard to become consumer product safety rule - would make the current toy safety standard promulgated by ASTM International1 (F963-07) a consumer product safety rule.
Mandatory labeling with tracking information - would require manufacturers to label children's products with tracking information useful to consumers and retailers in identifying recalled products.
Lead - would ban lead in all children's products and tighten the lead paint standard.
Prohibit sale of recalled products - would make it unlawful for retailers to sell a recalled product.
ATV standard - would require CPSC to establish a mandatory consumer product safety standard for four-wheel all-terrain vehicles (ATVs).
Garage door openers - would require all automatic garage door openers that directly drive the door in the closing direction that are manufactured more than 6 months after the date of enactment to include an entrapment protection device as specified in the legislation.
Cigarette lighter ruling - would require the CPSC to issue a final rule mandating general safety standards for cigarette lighters not later than 24 months after the date of enactment.
Streamline rulemaking process - streamline the product safety rulemaking process to be more timely by eliminating a mandatory "Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking" step.
Public disclosure of injury, illness, etc. reports - 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. It would allow the CPSC to expedite the disclosure of industry provided information in the interest of public health and safety.
Increased CPSC funding - authorize funding levels for 7 years starting at $88.5 million in 2009 and increasing at a rate of 10% 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.
1ASTM International, originally known as ASTM (the American Society for Testing and Materials) is an international standards organization that develops and publishes voluntary technical standards for a wide range of materials, products, systems, and services.
(See ITT's Online Archives or 12/18/07 news, 07121820, for Part VII, the final part of BP's series of summaries of S. 2045, with links to previous parts.
See ITT's Online Archives or 01/07/08 news, 08010710, for BP summary of the House's passage of its own child product safety bill, H.R. 4040.)
Senate Commerce Committee press release, with link to a staff working draft of the bipartisan legislation (dated 02/15/08) available at http://commerce.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=PressReleases.Detail&PressRelease_id=249061&Month=2&Year=2008.
Retail Industry Leaders Association's "Supply Chain Insider" report on product safety legislation (dated 02/01/08) available at http://www.retail-leaders.org/latest/rlNews.aspx?section=NEWSHA&arc=1/22/2008.