House Approves Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act

HOUSE APPROVES CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY MODERNIZATION ACT

Washington, D.C.–U.S. Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Vice-Chair of the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade, and Consumer Protection, joined a bipartisan majority in the House today in support of a plan to make toys safer and protect consumers. The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, H.R. 4040, was approved by a vote of 407 to 0.

Congresswoman Schakowsky delivered the following remarks on the House floor today before the House unanimously approved H.R. 4040.

"This is the season of gift-giving; but this year, it is also the season of parents worrying about whether the toys they buy for their children will be safe or a potentially lethal hazard. My hometown paper, The Chicago Tribune, recently conducted tests on about 800 toys that they purchased in and around Chicago. They found a wooden butterfly at an Oak Park toy store with 85,000 parts per million of lead — 142 times the legal limit. A Superman figurine sold in Chicago contained 33,000 parts per million. The Associated Press followed up with their own tests — 35% of the toys they looked at contained lead levels above the legal limit.

We should have a Consumer Product Safety Commission that is aggressive in protecting our children — our most precious resource. We should, but we don't. Unfortunately, the CPSC's Acting Chairwoman seems content with the status quo.

H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, recognizes that the status quo of daily recalls, injuries, and deaths is not acceptable. I support this bill because it provides new authority and resources to make products — particularly children's products — safe.

There are many important provisions in this bill. It will virtually ban lead in products intended for children age 12 and younger. It will mandate independent third party testing for hazards in children's products. It includes provisions from legislation I introduced to require long-overdue mandatory safety standards for durable infant and toddler products and strengthen recall effectiveness by requiring them to include recall registration cards.

I hope that we can make this bill even stronger. We need to add tough whistleblower protections, ensure that states that want to do even more to protect their residents are not preempted and make sure that injured consumers have full rights to hold wrongdoers accountable. And I do not understand why we are giving manufacturers protections from criminal liability for doing nothing more than following the letter of the law.

Ultimately, however, its success will depend on the willingness of the CPSC to implement its mandate of consumer protection. I want to thank Chairman Dingell and Chairman Rush for their hard work on this bill and for their commitment to vigorous oversight of CPSC's activities. And I look forward to working with them to make this bill even stronger as the process goes forward....

The Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act, H.R. 4040, bans lead beyond a minute amount in products intended for children under 12, mandates third-party testing of children's products and requires mandatory safety standards for products like cribs and high chairs.

The legislation also requires new labels to aid in the recall of children's products and prohibits companies from exporting products that have been recalled or violate product safety rules.

Finally, the legislation strengthens the currently underfunded and understaffed Consumer Product Safety Commission. The bill significantly increases CPSC resources to hire additional staff and for laboratory renovations, including $20 million to modernize the testing lab. The legislation also creates a new power for the CPSC to immediately share information about dangerous products with the public and ensures State public health agencies are kept informed.