Jim DeMint
U.S. Senator, South Carolina
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DeMint Offers Fix to CPSIA Mistakes
04/02/2009 - 03:18:07 PM
Senator DeMint will offer an amendment to the budget resolution to put Congress on record about protecting small and home businesses from the burdensome and impractical requirements of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008.

The CPSIA has threatened thousands of jobs and caused many small and home businesses to unnecessarily increase the costs of their products without providing substantial improvement in product safety. The legislation was drafted so broadly that it swept up small and family businesses that were never part of the problem. The law imposes burdensome testing requirements when more common-sense approaches could guarantee the same level of safety. Senator DeMint's amendment would take the first steps necessary to repair the damage inflicted by the CPSIA's unintended consequences in the following ways:

Delay the lead limits 6 months so that the CPSC and the public can address confusion surrounding the implementation

Exempt thrift stores and other second hand sellers: The Goodwill and the Salvation Army have never been a safety problem and in these hard economic times people need access to affordable goods now more than ever.

Exempt the sale of books and children’s motorcycles from the CPSIA. Books and bikes have never been a product safety concern.

Allow manufacturers to show that their products are within the lead limits by showing that all the components of their products are within the lead limit. If lead is not in the component it won’t be in the product. This is a common-sense approach that will save businesses thousands of dollars without compromising the safety of the product.

Prevents retroactive enforcement that would require otherwise safe products from having to be destroyed. There are hundreds of millions of dollars of safe products on the shelves and in warehouses today that should be sold. It just doesn't make sense to force businesses to destroy perfectly good products.

Most importantly, Senator DeMint's amendment protects the health and well-being of our children, by maintaining the lead limits currently in place and requiring that the overwhelming majority of all children’s products sold in the U.S., except the few exempted above, meet the new standards in the CPSIA.
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