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DeMint Introduces Consumer Product Safety Reform Bill
Legislation will protect families, charities and small businesses from regulations and lawsuits that could kill thousands of jobs |
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February 5, 2009 - Today, U.S. Senator Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina) announced the introduction of a bill protect small businesses, charities and families by reforming the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA). Senator DeMint’s legislation would stop the most overreaching and burdensome aspects of CPSIA, slated to take effect February 10. Unless reformed, the new law will demand onerous testing for anything geared towards children age 12 and under. This mandate would fall on books, toys, clothing, hair bands, board games, sporting equipment, backpacks, and even special learning equipment made for children with disabilities.
Cosponsors of the DeMint reform legislation include U.S. Senators Sam Brownback (R-Kansas), Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), David Vitter (R-Louisiana) and Roger Wicker (R-Mississippi). Senator DeMint’s legislation has been endorsed by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Federation of Independent Business, the Coalition for Safe and Affordable Childrenswear, and the Handmade Toy Alliance. The legislation has also been offered as an amendment the Democrat economic stimulus bill currently being debated in the Senate, as these reforms would save thousands of jobs.
“In the rush to ‘do something’ Congress has overreacted and threatened to kill thousands of jobs, small businesses and harm charities around the country,” said DeMint. “At a time when jobs are disappearing, businesses are struggling and investments are plummeting, burdensome and overreaching government regulation is not the answer. The original bill needs to be altered to strike a better balance between the bill’s laudable goals and the common sense necessary to enforce it.”
“The way this law was hastily written opens the door to lawsuits against families that hold yard sales with children’s toys or charities that provide a vital service to low-income Americans. We simply cannot allow this law to go unreformed. We must take action quickly to protect American families, charities and small businesses from these misdirected regulations.”
The Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008 was hastily passed through Congress and into law last fall in response to a lead paint scare involving children’s toys manufactured in China. Unfortunately, the law places more burdens on domestic producers than toymakers overseas, requiring onerous testing for lead and other toxic substances for any products geared towards children age 12 and under, threatening to shutdown consignment shops, thrift stores and small manufacturing businesses.
Senator DeMint’s legislation (S. 374) has six major reforms:
- Delays the overreaching regulations six months so that all parties can work together to address the needs of our small businesses and the needs of product safety.
- Allows small manufacturers to use the testing and certification that their component suppliers have done to certify that the components do not contain an impermissible amount of lead. This will save small manufacturers from having to subject their products -- many of which are made in small runs -- to duplicative and expensive multi-thousand dollar tests.
- Exempts thrift stores, yard sales, consignments shops and other re-sellers from the prohibitions in the act. Goodwill, the Salvation Army and your local flea market were never the source of the product safety concerns encountered last year, and they won’t be in the future. They are good actors trying to provide Americans of modest means with value oriented products. They shouldn’t be subjected to tens of thousands of dollars in potential liability.
- Prevents retro-active enforcement of the act. There are millions of dollars of safe products in the warehouses and stores around the country today, which could become un-sellable under CPSIA. This will prevent thousands of products from being destroyed and the livelihood of thousands of businesses from being threatened.
- Provides a Good-Faith Exemption. The act and its associated regulations are extremely complex. Small manufacturers are having difficulty understanding what the act requires of them. While many small businesses are doing their best to comply with the act it's possible someone could accidentally run afoul of the act. If they can show that their error was made in good-faith, my bill will provide them with a one-time exemption from sanction.
- Requires the CPSC to provide small businesses with a compliance guide. This is an extremely technical regulation that impacts a number of small businesses who don’t have large compliance departments to decipher the regulations for them. Senator DeMint’s bill would require the CPSC, in consultation with the state and federal small business agencies, to develop a compliance guide that addresses the concerns of the small business community.
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