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October 30, 2007
Senate committee approves CPSC reform; Speaker, Senator call for CPSC's Nord to resign
Two major items on the DC product safety front: Today, the Senate Commerce Committee, by voice vote, approved a strong version of S. 2045, the CPSC Reform Act (our joint release with other consumer groups; chief sponsor Senator Mark Pryor's (D-AR) release). We'd testified in support of the bill earlier this month. Meanwhile, Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-CA) and Senator Sherrod Brown (D-OH) both called (AP, Reuters) for the resignation of acting CPSC chief Nancy Nord, following a New York Times front page (that helps!) reprise today of a story first broken by the Washington Post's Annys Shin last week, that Nord had sent the committee a letter opposing most of the reform bill.
More on the markup: The core provisions of S. 2045 were retained, although one amendment we are concerned with, on ATV safety, was added. The committee approved several strengthening amendments, including two by Sen. Barbara Boxer-- one on a long-sought PIRG priority, extending toy safety hazard labeling to the Internet and one on improving the recall effectiveness of durable products like cribs. From our release:
The CPSC Reform Act of 2007, introduced by Senator Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), and co-sponsored by Senators Inouye (D-HI) Brown (D-OH), Durbin (D-IL), Klobuchar (D-MN) and Bill Nelson (D-FL) would require some children's products, including toys, to be tested by independent labs and to be certified to meet safety standards, make it illegal to sell a recalled product, limit the levels of lead in toys and children's jewelry to low levels, improve CPSC's ability to disclose safety information to the public, and raise the cap on the agency's penalties from $1.83 million to $100 million. It also includes provisions giving State Attorneys General the ability to enforce CPSC regulations and includes protections for individuals in companies and safety agencies who blow the whistle on wrongdoing. The industry lobby, while fierce in its press statements, couldn't muster any actual support for votes against consumer protection today. Maybe their next strategy is to try and prevent the bill from ever coming to the Senate floor. That seems doubtful, also. Maybe after too long a long time, we'll be able to rebuild the once-proud agency that commissioners appointed by Ronald Reagan once crippled.
Posted by Ed Mierzwinski at October 30, 2007 09:08 PM
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