In today's editorial A Voice for the Consumer, the New York Times backs the recent call by U.S. PIRG, the Consumers Union, the Consumer Federation of America and other leading groups to restore the long dormant White House Office of Consumer Affairs. From the NYT:

The time has come to give the American consumer a much stronger voice in Washington. President-elect Barack Obama has already named what amounts to an energy and environmental czar in the White House, and America’s beleaguered consumers deserve no less.[...] Presidents Johnson and Carter both recognized the need for a strong person to do that job. Both chose Esther Peterson, who during about eight years in office pushed for then-radical ideas like nutritional labeling on food and truth in advertising. As the Reagan anti-government era began, the consumer protection job steadily lost clout until it was shuttered in the late 1990s.

Read the details here:
1. Restore the United States Office of Consumer Affairs; Put a Consumer “Czar” In The White House.
2. Rein in Wall Street Excesses, Protect Consumers from Abusive and Predatory Lending.
3. Protect Consumers from Price-Gouging in Oil, Gas and Electricity Markets, and Take Steps To Provide Households With Access to Alternative Energy and Efficiency.
4. Improve Consumer Access to Justice By Reinstating Legal Rights.
5. Guarantee Safe, High Quality, Affordable Healthcare for Everyone.
6. Ensure our Food and Products are Safe.

This one makes the dumber than dirt blog category: From the CPSC:
Faulty Instructions Prompt Recall of Electrical Wiring How-to-Books by The Taunton Press; Shock Hazard to Consumers

Hazard: The books contain several errors in the technical diagrams that could lead consumers to incorrectly install or repair electrical wiring, posing an electrical shock hazard to consumers.

The CBS Early Show did a story (watch video and read story) on the CPSC's decision to delay a Congressional ban on toxic phthalates in toys yesterday featuring U.S. PIRG Public Health Advocate Liz Hitchcock. Previous blog has details on lawsuit by allies Public Citizen and NRDC seeking to enforce the law.

In case you missed it, this weekend Saturday Night Live Weekend Update anchor (and Hillary Clinton impersonator) Amy Poehler, just back from having a baby herself, gave another SNL shoutout to PIRG's annual Trouble In Toyland reports--

POEHLER: "The New York Public Interest Research Group said this week that one in three popular children's toys contain hazardous chemicals such as lead, arsenic and mercury. The worst: 'I Don't Feel So Good Elmo.'"

We're proud to have had our work hit a few other popular shows over the years. "What are balloons?" was once the Final Jeopardy answer (in a special kids' tournament on the show) to the question: "PIRG finds these to be the worst choking hazard." And about 6-7 years ago, the plot of Law & Order featured a visit to NYPIRG's offices after the murder of a NYPIRG intern who'd been conducting an investigation into dangerous practices. The late actor so associated with the show, Jerry Orbach, uttered the immortal (to us, anyway) line: "NYPIRG? What's that?"

Our colleagues at the Michigan-based Ecology Center have released their latest list and searchable database of toxic toys at their site healthytoys.org. They use an XRF gun, which is an excellent (but expensive) screening device for lead and other toxic heavy metals that's being rolled out by a number of manufacturers. CPSC inspectors and state officials are also using them. Excerpt from the Ecology Center release:

The Ecology Center determined that 1/3 of the toys they tested had "high" or "medium" levels of chemicals of concern this year. Lead was found in 20 percent of the toys tested, including 54 products (3.5 percent) that exceeded the 600 parts per million (ppm) state legal limit set last year and 164 (10.7 percent) above the American Academy of Pediatrics recommended ceiling of 40 ppm. Children's jewelry remains the most contaminated product category. "There is simply no place for toxic chemicals in toys," said Mike Shriberg, Ph.D., Ecology Center's Policy Director.

Arthur Bryant, executive director of the public interest law firm Public Justice, has a good editorial America's access to justice at risk in today's Trenton (NJ) Times. It's about the myriad threats to access to justice posed by a three-pronged attack by corporate lobbyists:

They are using many tactics, but three are critical -- federal preemption, mandatory arbitration, and class action bans. If these three succeed, most Americans can kiss many of their rights goodbye.

Anny Shin reports in today's Washington Post that the CPSC says that Some Toys With Banned Plastics Will Stay on Market. We don't think so. The story is based on a letter opinion to industry lawyers from Consumer Product Safety Commission general counsel Cheryl Falvey who says essentially that because consumer product safety standards have previously been interpreted to apply only to products manufactured after a ban date, that it's ok to keep selling inventory stocks of toys laden with toxic phthalates after the February 2009 ban on toxic phthalate chemicals kicks in. Funny thing is that Falvey's letter ignores and does not even discuss the bold-face underlined words in Section 108 of the new statute that says:

Beginning on the date that is 180 days after the date of enactment of this Act, it shall be unlawful for any person to manufacture for sale, offer for sale, distribute in commerce, or import into the United States any children's toy or child care article that contains concentrations of more than 0.1 percent of di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), dibutyl phthalate (DBP), or benzyl butyl phthalate (BBP).

We've written before on what is worse than a consumer pet peeve. Thousands of consumers are injured seriously enough to go to the emergency room each year trying to open nasty hard plastic "clamshell" packaging intended to deter shoplifters. In today's New York Times, Brad Stone and Matt Richtel report on the possible end to "wrap rage" in their story Latest Marvel: Packages That Open Without a Saw.

There is a free symposium from 9am-2pm tomorrow Friday at American University Law School. The symposium is called Dangerous Products: From Lead Toys to Tainted Drugs, A Discussion for Consumer Protection Professionals and the Media. It's co-sponsored with the American Association for Justice and is in Room 603 of the AU Law School, 4801 Massachusetts Avenue, NW - Washington, DC 20016 -- 202-274-4000. Here is the agenda. Among the highlights-- two professors will discuss new papers: The Social Costs of Dangerous Products: An Empirical Investigation, by Prof. Sidney Shapiro of Wake Forest School of Law, and Unavailable and Unaccountable: A Free Ride for Foreign Manufacturers of Defective Goods, by Prof. Andrew F. Popper of American University Washington College of Law.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund and the New Democracy Project have released a joint book with recommendations for the new administration. The book Change for America has several sections available online here. Among these is the chapter CPSC: Safety First written by Pamela Gilbert, who was executive director of the agency under President Bill Clinton; Pamela is a longtime public interest attorney who has also worked both at U.S. PIRG and Public Citizen. From her report summary:

The Consumer Product Safety Commission over the past eight years was run by political appointees who let the agency languish, promulgating few new regulations, announcing few new programs, and rolling back existing rules.

The most important thing that the new president must do to restore confidence in the safety of consumer products is to appoint a chair of the CPSC who has a proven commitment to consumer safety—not industry preferences. He or she should quickly address the shortage of experienced staff and low staff morale, follow through on congressionally mandated improvements to the agency’s authorities and testing laboratory, and establish new partnerships to enable it to do more with its limited resources. CPSC must also address new challenges, including the meteoric rise in imports of unsafe consumer products and any hazards associated with new technologies, such as nanotechnology.

In today's New York Times Magazine, Gardiner Harris explains in a detailed story that the once gold-standard U.S. FDA has a growing "Safety Gap". He argues that the FDA is under-funded, that it hasn't kept up with the globalization of commerce, and that it cannot protect us from dangerous products, especially those from China:

But are the Chinese factories safe? Who knows? [...] China has in recent years exported poisonous toothpaste, deadly dog food, toys made with lead paint and tainted fish. In one infamous example this spring, Chinese manufacturers substituted a cheap fake for the dried pig intestines used to make the drug heparin, which is given to dialysis and surgery patients to prevent blood clotting. [...] The F.D.A. regulates more than $1 trillion worth of consumer goods, which amounts to about 25 cents of every consumer dollar spent in this country. This includes $466 billion in food sales, $275 billion in drugs, $60 billion in cosmetics and $18 billion in vitamin supplements.[...] Even the F.D.A.’s staunchest defenders now acknowledge that something is terribly wrong.

Consumers Union, publisher of Consumer Reports, has written FDA Commissioner Andrew C. von Eschenbach to demand action on potentially harmful and deceptively marketed nanoparticles in sunscreen:

New findings published in Consumer Reports today confirm that use of certain nanoparticles is widespread in mineral-based sunscreens, and that company representatives are making erroneous assertions about these particles in their products.[...] Thus, our two test projects suggest that use of nanoparticles of titanium dioxide and/or zinc oxide in mineral-based sunscreens is widespread and that consumers will generally not be able to avoid exposure by buying mineral-based products that manufacturers say do not contain nanoparticles.

The CPSC has issued an urgent safety warning to all parents with cribs to check for shoddy hardware or design that could lead to hazards for their infants. The agency especially singles out "drop-side" cribs. The agency's announcement was prompted by two deaths in Delta Enterprise cribs. The CPSC announced that Delta Enterprise has agreed to recall 985,000 cribs for replacement of a missing safety peg and an additional 600,000 cribs for other drop-side hazards.

In Melanie Trottman's story in the Wall Street Journal (pd. subs. req'd):

Some consumer advocates say the CPSC's action is long overdue, and say at least some of the cribs involved in the latest string of recalls were certified by the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, a U.S. trade group whose stamp of approval can lead consumers to believe a product is safe. "Clearly something in the voluntary standards is not catching these serious flaws," said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, a Chicago child-safety advocacy group.

The recalls follow highly-publicized massive recent recalls of Simplicity cribs following at least two other deaths. That process was slowed and complicated by the bankruptcy of Simplicity; the private equity firm that had purchased its assets claimed no responsibility for its liabilities.

Provisions in the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act will subject durable nursery products, including cribs, to mandatory standards and stricter enforcement, following years of consumer groups at loggerheads with the crib manufacturers, their lobbyists, their lawyers, their associations and even the independent standards development firms such as ASTM that develop the voluntary standards now in use, as Annys Shin points out in her Washington Post story:

Consumer advocates have tried unsuccessfully for much of the past decade to get ASTM to develop a more comprehensive durability standard, said Donald Mays, senior director of product safety for Consumers Union.

From the Wall Street Journal (pd. subs. req'd.):

In 2002, Angela Crespo, then Neurontin's senior marketing manager, emailed an outside firm that was contracted to write up the study's results: "We are not interested at all in having this paper published because it is negative!!" Pfizer declined to make the three employees in the emails available for interviews.

From the New York Times story Experts Conclude Pfizer Manipulated Studies by Stephanie Saul:

The drug maker Pfizer earlier this decade manipulated the publication of scientific studies to bolster the use of its epilepsy drug Neurontin for other disorders, while suppressing research that did not support those uses, according to experts who reviewed thousands of company documents for plaintiffs in a lawsuit against the company.

Merck had hired ghostwriters to produce scientific articles about Vioxx, then recruited prestigious doctors to serve as their official authors. [...] Last winter, Merck and Schering-Plough were criticized for delaying the release of a study on their best-selling cholesterol medication Vytorin...

Despite the products’ extraordinary popularity, every study performed in recent years shows that they have no therapeutic effect beyond sedation, and a growing number of reports have concluded that they can be dangerous.

Updated and name corrected In recalled-crib-company collapse news, Michael Greenwald Rosenwald (oops, also Annys Shin contributed) of the Washington Post has a story on Blackstreet, the private equity firm and parent of SFCA, which says it bought Simplicity's assets, but not its liabilities. The cribs had been recalled (previous blog) due to the deaths of several infants. From the Post story A Test of Blackstreet's Strategy: [Blackstreet founder Murry]

Gunty declined to speak in detail about the bassinet issue, saying only: "With respect to Simplicity, I'm the father of three young kids, and I cannot imagine the loss these families have suffered. It's very tough, and we want to do the right thing here." Blackstreet's lawyers have argued that it bought only Simplicity's assets, not its liabilities, even though government officials are seeking "all legal remedies" against the company. Asked several times what the "right thing" was, Gunty would say only, "It's a very tough situation, and we want to do the right thing."

Here's the final paragraph of the story, with some incredible quotes from Mr. Ray Rice, an investor in the Blackstreet firm:

Rice, for one, is not overly concerned about Blackstreet's potential liability. While he said it is a "terrible, terrible, terrible tragedy when somebody loses a baby" -- he has grandchildren -- Rice also stressed that he didn't think Blackstreet had any liability. "I don't think I'm exposed to a darn thing," Rice said. "I don't think the fund is exposed." But even if the Simplicity deal does turn bad -- if people stop buying the products altogether -- Rice said, "If Simplicity gets wiped out and the equity gets wiped out, it's just a loss."

In some good (and non-Wall Street bailout-related) news, Public Citizen attorney Brian Wolfman explains over at the Consumer Law and Policy blog that consumer groups have prevailed over the Bush administration in federal court. Public Citizen, Consumers for Auto Reliability and Safety, and Consumer Action sued the Department of Justice over its 15-year unlawful delay in establishing a used vehicle database.

The purpose of the database is to enable consumers to check the validity of a car's title and odometer reading and learn whether the car has been stolen or severely damaged.

The CPSC has recalled 600,000 more cribs made by Simplicity. According to the Washington Post story by Annys Shin, the previously recalcitrant SFCA, the private equity fund that acquired Simplicity's assets, is cooperating with retailers this time (previous recall where it did not) although this is not mentioned in the CPSC release. According to the Post: "the drop side can come off, creating a gap where infants and toddlers can become trapped and be strangled..."

Retailers include:

AAFES, of Dallas, Texas
Babies“R”Us, of Wayne, N.J.
Burlington Coat Factory/Baby Depot, of Burlington, N.J.
K’s Merchandise (out of business)
Meijer Distribution Inc., of Grand Rapids, Mich.
Nebraska Furniture Mart, of Omaha, Neb.
ShopKo, of Green Bay, Wis.
Target, of Minneapolis, Minn.
Wal-Mart Stores Inc, of Bentonville, Ark.

Annys Shin of the Washington Post is reporting in a story Tighter Lead Rule for Kids' Items that the CPSC will announce today Monday a legal opinion that confirms that the new Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act requires that all children's products containing lead in amounts greater than 600 ppm must be off the shelves by February, and will require that product previously manufactured and in inventory be destroyed. The bad news is that at a recent public meeting, the CPSC all but told industry lawyers and lobbyists that -- (paraphrase) "except for toys with toxic lead (and probably also toxic phthalates) where that pesky Congress has boxed us in, not to worry as we intend to go out of our way and interpret all other effective dates for all new product standards as loosely as possible, so you can keep on selling dangerous products you've already made." I noted this pro-industry slant in my blog after that meeting, as did Annys Shin in her blog. Page 11 of this CPSC slideshow from that meeting explains the rationale for lead and phthalates; previous pages explain why other dangerous products may be treated with less deference to safety.

After years of delay, today the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration finally opened a cranky, clunky but still helpful version of its public Early Warning database at Safercars.gov. Public Citizen has long advocated the reform. From its release and statement by its president and former NHTSA Administrator Joan Claybrook:

Auto manufacturers have been submitting this important data on deaths, injuries, damage claims and possible defects since 2003 but NHTSA kept it secret in violation of the law. Public Citizen was instrumental in pushing Congress in the 2000 Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act, or TREAD Act, to require reporting of early warning data after NHTSA failed to identify the defects in the Firestone tire/ Ford Explorer rollovers. NHTSA’s action today falls short of complying with the spirit of the law.

In an exclusive, the Chicago Tribune's Patricia Callahan, one of the nation's leading CPSC watchdog reporters, finds that Feds, Graco withheld bassinet warning:

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission botched the recall of the Simplicity bassinets, telling some American families that they should not put their babies to sleep in the bassinets while allowing others to continue placing their infants in a potentially deadly product.

Federal safety regulators and Graco Children's Products knew two weeks ago that bassinets sold under the Graco name had the same dangerous design that caused two babies' deaths but did not alert the public as part of a larger recall, the Tribune has found.

"Oh, my God," said Cara Smith, Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan's deputy chief of staff, who has been investigating the bassinets. "What possible reason would you not get that information out? Utter disregard for the safety of babies. They sat on that information while people continued to use these bassinets believing they were safe."

The CPSC has a new gateway webpage for all things - rulemakings, comment deadlines, notices and more -- related to the implementation of the landmark Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). Since the new law has some very tight regulatory timelines, the page also allows you to sign up for either an old-school email list or a more modern Web 2.0 RSS feed to learn about updates to the page.

Annys Shin has a followup story in today's Washington Post on the Simplicity bassinet recall that SFCA -- which owns Simplicity's assets -- has refused to participate in, claiming it is not liable. Previous blog. SFCA is a unit of the private equity fund Blackstreet and claims it is not a successor company under the law:

In April, SFCA bought Simplicity's assets at auction. At the time, SFCA was aware of Simplicity's recall of 1 million cribs and voluntarily set aside resources to continue carrying it out. A May news release from Blackstreet said: "The Simplicity brand is well known for its exceptional value, innovative design and unparalleled focus on safety."

I just left some of my consumer colleagues at the second half of an all day CPSC seminar on the implementation of the landmark CPSC Improvement Act. The event is being held in an auditorium at the Commerce Department downtown. The building is named for Herbert Hoover but seemed older than that. In addition to the scant ten of us, the other 400 plus seats were full of industry lobbyists. Most of the questioners from the industry seemed to be asking the CPSC to interpret the law in a way that would allow them to keep selling existing but soon-to-be non-compliant inventory. In addition, one CPSC official seemed to directly suggest that for certain products that would become banned hazardous substances six months after August 14 (when the President signed the bill) it would be best to leave the room and book some containers on ships for export as soon as possible.

My analysis is that the CPSC's regulatory culture has always leaned toward interpreting the law prospectively -- that is, in favor of reading newer, more stringent laws to only apply to future products -- but that in some of the important provisions of the CPSC Improvement Act it is clear that the Congress did not intend them to continue to do that. Nevertheless, I got the sense by the tone of many of the agency comments -- and I hope I am wrong -- that they appear ready to bend over backwards wherever possible to find a tortured statutory interpretation that is favorable to continued sale of existing but-soon-to-be-non-compliant inventory.

Following yet another death related to Simplicity bassinets, the CPSC yesterday gave consumers an extraordinary alert of the hazards and also cautioned that the private equity firm SFCA, which had earlier this year purchased Simplicity's assets, was refusing to participate in a recall of the dangerous products. Fortunately, six major retailers agreed to cooperate with the CPSC and are withdrawing the dangerous products from the market.

According to Annys Shin's story in today's Washington Post, the private equity firm SFCA bought the assets of Simplicity in a way that does not make it liable:

Legal experts said SFCA is not obligated to comply with the CPSC's request to do a recall because of the way its purchase of Simplicity's assets was structured. "The reason to buy assets is to not incur liabilities," said Barry Barbash, a partner and head of the asset management group at law firm Willkie, Farr, Gallagher.

Yesterday, the CPSC issued an imminent hazard warning after SFCA, the new owner of previously recalled [Oct 2007]Simplicity bassinets, refused to participate in a voluntary recall.

This is the second strangulation death CPSC has learned of in the co-sleeper bassinets. On September 29, 2007, a 4-month-old girl from Noel, Mo. became entrapped in the metal bars of the bassinet and died. CPSC is issuing this safety alert because SFCA Inc., the company which purchased all of Simplicity Inc.’s assets at public auction in April 2008, has refused to cooperate with the government and recall the products. SFCA maintains that it is not responsible for products previously manufactured by Simplicity Inc.

"using its new authorities in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, to release this warning upon making a finding that the health and safety of the public require immediate notice."

This morning the President signed the landmark CPSC Reform Act. Link to our news release; link to Marketwatch.com with details; Washington Post Checkout blog; ABC news; AP wire; Bill sponsor Senator Mark Pryor's release. Our toy safety pages. Here are many of the highlights, from Marketwatch:

Ed Mierzwinski, consumer program director with U.S. Public Interest Research Group, said highlights of the law are the phthalates ban, the public database that reverses the CPSC's "longstanding culture of secrecy," and the added testing for toy hazards and certification for children's products. "These broad new protections are all in addition to doubling the agency's funding over five years, adding staff, increasing its civil-penalty authority and adding other tools to prevent dangerous imports and hold wrongdoers accountable," Mierzwinski said. "Finally, the bill preserves state toxic hazard warning laws and retains broad powers of state attorneys general to act as tough consumer cops, despite industry efforts to weaken their authority."

According to numerous sources not including the White House, the President is expected to sign the landmark product safety reform legislation this morning (without a ceremony), if he hasn't already.

The executive branch watchdog group known as OMBWatch has a summary of the new CPSC Reform Act available. We expect that the president will sign the bill this week when he returns from the Olympics. The OMBWatch story links to its earlier analysis Product Safety Regulator Hobbled by Decades of Negligence, a useful summary of the agency's history by the numbers.

After years of trying to convince consumers, farmers and retailers that "every body needs" its genetically-modified artificial hormones known as rBGH/rBST in their milk, came yesterday's stunning announcement: Monsanto Looks to Sell Dairy Hormone Business (New York Times).

According to a fact sheet from allies at the Center for Food Safety:

Since these products are not labeled as containing rBGH / rBST, most consumers have no idea that a growth hormone intended to induce dairy cows to be more productive is in much of their milk, cheese, and yogurt. After approving the use of rBGH in 1993, the Food and Drug Administration has turned a deaf ear to the pleas of consumers, food safety organizations and scientists to reverse its approval of the hormone, or to simply require labeling of foods containing rBGH.

On Friday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Senate Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) were kind enough to invite us to the enrollment ceremony for the CPSC Reform Act. They are pictured here signing the official enrolled copy of the bill before sending it to the president. Behind them from left are Diane Beedle (and her partially hidden son Frankie), Senator Mark Pryor (D-AR), Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) and Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-CT). Diane was a longtime staffer for Jan Schakowsky, a conferee and longtime product safety champion who authored several sections of the bill, including Section 104, the Danny Keysar Child Product Safety Notification Act, named for a little boy who died ten years ago when a previously recalled crib collapsed around him. Senator Pryor, of course, was the chief sponsor of the Senate-passed bill. Rep. DeLauro was chief sponsor of HR 3691, a predecessor bill that had 167 co-sponsors and helped set the path for reform. The Speaker is wearing a yellow, U.S. PIRG "Safer Toys, Safer Kids" button.

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.

I've uploaded the CPSC Conference Report (House Report 110-787 at 221kb), with final law language and, at the end, explanatory conference report language. You can also get it here from the source, but I am never clear on how permanent some of these Thomas queries are.

The New York Times, in an editorial today, The President and Product Safety, urges the President to sign the CPSC Reform bill immediately:

American consumers, who have suffered years of neglect from government agencies created for their protection, could soon be in for some genuine help. Congress last week overwhelmingly passed the first important reform in 30 years of the creaky Consumer Product Safety Commission. Aides to President Bush have said that he plans to sign the bill into law.[...]It is gratifying that even a White House that has spent years fighting worthy regulation now apparently recognizes that this bill is necessary to make today’s market safer for consumers and their children.

Update 930PM WE WIN 89-3-- on to the President for the most significant improvement in consumer product safety since the CPSC was established in 1973!

830pm We are on senate floor!

There's a good chance that the Senate will vote today to send the historic CPSC Reform Act conference report to the President. Probably mid-afternoon. Disputes over other matters may be temporarily put aside to protect America's littlest consumers. Reporters, call Liz Hitchcock in our office for details/comment. 202-546-9707.

There are quite a few items on suspension today and a few may take some time. Suspension bills that are non-controversial get passed together in one big vote. Any member can demand a separate recorded vote. Suspension bills subjected to individual recorded votes cannot be amended, but do then need a two-thirds majority (since they are put on suspension with the presumption that they are non-controversial). House action updated regularly here. Look for HR 4040, the conference report on the CPSC Reform Act.

The New York Times editorial board just posted to its blog Can't We All Agree On This?: Toys Should Not Kill (Or Injure) Children. Excerpt:

Industry lobbyists have been fighting some of the most critical reforms. The conferees need to stand strong.[...]C'mon, this is a battle between child-safety advocates and anti-breast cancer activists fighting for public health against the toy and chemical industries, who are fighting to protect their bottom line. Is it really so hard for members of Congress -- of both parties --to decide which side to come down on?

The CPSC Reform Act conference meets today (announcement). Our position is simple. Protect kids. Here's one way to look at it, through the eyes of kids. The committee has completed 21 non-controversial items, but at least four PIRG priorities remain. Here's our statement today on those issues:

In today’s conference meeting, U.S. PIRG urges the conferees to accept measures to: