Following a procedural delay initiated by Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH), the House will formally announce CPSC reform bill conferees today. House and Senate conference staff have already started work.

Meanwhile, Carter Keithley of the Toy Industry of America took some time to patronize provincial Connecticut legislators in a Hartford Courant op-edit last week that if the state enacted tougher toxic toy laws under consideration that toy companies would "deny" toys from Connecticut children. From Lawmakers Overreacting On Toy Safety:

These bills would not only prove unnecessary, but would almost inevitably create unattainable compliance requirements without improving toy safety in the state. The most likely results would be to reduce the availability of a variety of toys in Connecticut, forcing parents to look elsewhere, or simply deny children their desired toys and reduce the viability of Connecticut toy manufacturers and retailers.

I encourage the legislature to keep on overreacting if it means I can rest assured my child is not being exposed to lead and other dangerous toxins in her toys.[...] Gov. M. Jodi Rell and legislators need to ignore paid spokesmen for the toy industry and listen to Connecticut parents. Mr. Keithley's comments are evidence that the toy industry will continue to downplay the risk to children and keep parents in the dark in the absence of this important legislation.

When I was director of Connecticut PIRG and successfully lobbying passage of the nation's first new car lemon law in 1982, the lobbyists from Detroit showed up and argued: "If Connecticut passes this law, we'll stop selling cars here." I've been to Connecticut since 1982, and you can still buy new cars, and the cars are safer and better. Let's stop making threats, Mr. Keithley, and start making safer and better toys. And by the way, Connecticut legislators didn't like being patronized in 1982 and probably don't like it today. While sources tell me that the toy industry and the merchants have hired "every lobbyist in the building" to try and kill these important bills before the session ends Wednesday night, Shannon is right, and the forces of right may still prevail.