Jay Inslee: Washington's 1st Congressional District
Issues
Families
House passes key consumer products measure
Federal protections follow Washington state’s lead in toy safety
30 July 2008
The U.S. House followed the lead of Washington state by passing legislation to strengthen the federal Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC), which included aggressive provisions to protect children from dangerous toys.
“Congress has, in no small measure, been prodded by states like Washington that are way ahead of the curve on this issue,” said U.S. Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.), who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which has jurisdiction over consumer issues.
“I commend state Representative Mary Lou Dickerson for helping create protections for children, not only in the Evergreen State, but across the country. And I’m proud that our Governor Chris Gregoire signed the nation’s most aggressive state toy safety measure into law and helped spur action at the federal level.”
Earlier this year, Washington state approved the nation's strongest toy standards for lead, cadmium and plasticizing chemicals called phthalates that can cause developmental defects. Dickerson authored the measure, House Bill 2647, the Children's Safe Products Act.
The bill that Congress passed today, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, H.R. 4040, would ban lead beyond a minute amount in products intended for children under 12 years of age and prohibit the use of dangerous phthalates in children’s toys and child-care articles. It also would strengthen the ability of the CPSC to prevent dangerous toys from getting to market in the first place, get unsafe products off the shelves more quickly and increase fines and penalties for violating product safety laws, among other things.
The federal legislation, supported by the Consumer Federation of America and Consumers Union, represents a compromise between House and Senate negotiators. It won broad bipartisan support in the House with a vote of 424 to 1. The Senate could give the measure final approval as early as this week. It then would go to the president for signature