Senate Floor Statement on the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act, S.2663

Mr. LEVIN.   Mr. President, I am pleased to support S. 2663, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act.  The reforms that this bill makes to the Consumer Product Safety Commission are long overdue. 

S. 2663 takes important steps to shore up a weak and ineffective Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).  As a grandfather and consumer, I am appalled at the lack of resources and enforcement authority of the CPSC and its inability to adequately protect our children, our food supply and the general public from harmful or contaminated products. 

We can and should be doing much more to protect the American consumer.  As was recently underscored by the alarming number of children’s products with high lead content, contaminated pet food and defective imported tires, there are a lot of cracks in the systems that were supposed to be watching out for consumers. 

We need to know our children’s and grandchildren’s toys are safe.  We need to know that the food we import is not tainted with harmful chemicals.  We need to know the products we buy will not harm us or our children.  I believe it is the government’s basic responsibility to protect the public. 

Those who work for the companies that make these products may often be in a position to detect and prevent serious problems or injuries before they occur.  I am pleased that this bill includes important protections for corporate whistleblowers that will encourage employees to come forward about violations and defective products without the fear of retaliation by their employer.

Many of the defective and contaminated products are imported.  Even with its current limited resources and reach, CPSC recalled approximately 150 tainted products from China in 2007 including tires, toys, baby cribs, candles, bicycles, remote controls, hair dryers, and lamps.  Imagine how many more contaminated or defective products are slipping through the cracks and reaching American consumers without being detected.

We are being deluged by cheap imports from China and elsewhere.  We should at least be making sure the products we import are not contaminated or dangerous.  In this vein, last summer I wrote to President Bush requesting that his administration investigate dangerous products that have been imported from China.  We need to strengthen our agencies and laws so that products that do not meet our health and safety standards are stopped at our borders.  To do this we need to give the CPSC the necessary tools and resources, including more manpower to adequately inspect imports.    

Mr. President, like most of my colleagues, I was shocked by CPSC Acting Chair Nancy Nord’s claims that no additional funding was needed for her agency.  To me this claim implied there was no desire by this administration to do more to protect American consumers.  That is absurd given the recent and alarming incidents of contaminated products reaching consumers.  The Senate’s consideration of S.2663 and the House passage of a similar bill is proof that Congress strongly disagrees with this point of view and will make the legislative changes needed to give the CPSC the necessary tools to improve on its past poor performance and reassure consumers that there will be more oversight of the marketplace in the future.

This bill will:

• Increase overall funding for the CPSC by 50 percent over seven years
• Increase CPSC staffing to at least 500 employees over the next 5 years
• Streamline product safety rulemaking procedures
• Ban lead in children’s’ products and require certification and labeling
• Increase inspection of imported products so we are not allowing recalled or banned products to cross our borders
• Increase penalties for violating our product safety laws
• Strengthen and improve recall procedures
• Ban the sale of recalled products

The legislation has the support of the following, among others:
Thomas H. Moore, Consumer Product Safety Commissioner
Alliance for Patient Safety
American Academy of Pediatrics
American Association of Law Libraries
American Association of University Professors, AZ Conference
American Library Association
Circumpolar Conservation Union
Coalition for Civil Rights and Democratic Liberties
Consumers Union
Consumer Federation of America
Doctors for Open Government
DoorTech Industries, Inc.
Ethics in Government Group (EGG)
Federation of American Scientists
Federal Employees Against Discrimination
Focus On Indiana
Fund for Constitutional Government
Georgians for Open Government
Government Accountability Project
HALT, Inc. -- An Organization of Americans for Legal Reform
Health Integrity Project
Information Trust
Integrity International
Kids in Danger
Liberty Coalition
National Consumers League
National Association of State Fire Marshals
National Employment Lawyers Association
National Judicial Conduct and Disability Law Project, Inc.
National Research Center for Women & Families
National Whistleblower Center
No Fear Coalition
OMB Watch
OpenTheGovernment.org
Parentadvocates.org
Patrick Henry Center
Project on Government Oversight
Public Citizen
Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility
Sustainable Energy and Economy Network
Taxpayers Against Fraud
The 3.5.7 Commission
The New Grady Coalition
The Semmelweis Society International (SSI)
The Student Health Integrity Project (SHIP)
Truckers Justice Center
Union of Concerned Scientists
U.S. Bill of Rights Foundation
U.S. Public Interest Research Group
Whistleblowers USA

I support this bipartisan legislation and I hope that it will quickly become law.