The second photo, taken after the signing, shows most of the DC-based consumer advocates (we had a lot of others working around the country!) and some of the hill staff who worked together on the bill. People look happy for two reasons. First, Congress enacted a good, strong, comprehensive piece of legislation. Second, just like that song I Was Country When Country Wasn't Cool, a lot of us in that picture have worked on CPSC reform and product safety a long time. We were product safety when product safety wasn't cool. We're glad that Congress has made product safety and consumer protection cool.

In 1994, Congress had enacted its last incremental (but important) reforms to the CPSC. But the new law is without doubt the most significant reform of the CPSC since its creation in 1973. It reauthorizes the CPSC for five more years, doubles its last Bush-requested budget and takes major steps to enhance its ability to protect the littlest consumers and everyone else, too. It creates a new statutory framework to guarantee the safety of all toys and children's products. It reverses decades of wrong-way U.S. toxics policy by banning phthalates in children's products until (if and when) they are proven safe. It is overdue, long-awaited landmark legislation.

For years, the CPSC had been neglected while the NAM (its letter of capitulation from last week), the Toy Industry of America, the American Chemistry Council (aka, Chemical Manufacturers of America) and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce (its letter of defiance from last week) worked to put it out of business. The new law rejects their wrong-headed multi-decade effort (begun in the Reagan Administration) to dismantle the agency. That plan came to a screeching halt in 2007, the Year of the Recall. We expect the president to sign the CPSC Improvement Act of 2008 later this week. Photos by Erin Wingo, U.S. PIRG.