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Floor Speech

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Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, later this afternoon, we are going to vote on Mary Boyle to be a Consumer Product Safety Commissioner. This organization, the Consumer Product Safety Commission, works on the frontlines to protect consumers from dangerous and defective products, and Ms. Boyle's confirmation will give the Commission a full complement of Commissioners to complete its important work.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is responsible for regulating the safety of more than 15,000 everyday products and helps keep hazardous products out of our homes and away from our families. The Agency is responsible for investigating hazards, effectuating product recalls, issuing and enforcing product safety standards, and informing consumers and manufacturers about potential dangers and how to avoid them. The CPSC's work literally saves lives and prevents injuries.

We know that Ms. Boyle is well qualified for this position and that she will make consumers a top priority and their safety a top priority.

Now is an important time for the Consumer Product Safety Commission to be well equipped to fight for these consumer safety issues. We need it to remain a strong force in keeping unsafe and defective products, including children's toys, infant rockers, household appliances, and other issues in the development space, like elevators and space heaters, out of the market.

When it comes to recalls, for example, this year the Consumer Product Safety Commission and three residential elevator manufacturers announced the recall of 70,000 residential elevators that posed a serious risk of injury and, tragically, death to small children. I am encouraged to see that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is taking action on this heartbreaking issue. There is more to be done, and we need a Commission that will follow through.

The Commission is also responsible for investigating tragedies, such as home fires that might have been caused by defective products. In fact, the Consumer Product Safety Commission was quickly on the scene in the Bronx earlier this year when a fire from a space heater caused the death of 17 people, including 8 children. When I sent a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission asking them to look further into this issue, they acted quickly and knew that we had to investigate.

While these investigations are still ongoing, we need assurances that if a defective product is found to be the cause, that the Consumer Product Safety Commission is going to be fully equipped to take action.

I also want to mention with respect to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's rulemaking authority that the Commerce Committee recently passed the STURDY Act, a bill that would speed up the Consumer Product Safety Commission's rulemaking process to deal with furniture tipovers.

Unfortunately, many furniture items are designed in such a way that they can tip if a child grabs or climbs upon them, with the potential of very tragic consequences. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has been undertaking a rulemaking to ban unsafe furniture items by imposing strict tipover testing requirements. I hope we will see a safety standard for this very soon.

Over the course of more than a decade at the Commission, Ms. Boyle has worked on these issues in senior positions across the Consumer Product Safety Commission, including as General Counsel and Deputy General Counsel before assuming her current role as Executive Director.

As the Consumer Product Safety Commission's General Counsel, Ms. Boyle served the Agency's chief legal officer--providing legal, policy, and strategic advice on a multitude of regulatory, statutory, fiscal, litigation, and enforcement issues--and examined proposed product safety rules and standards. So I think she is well qualified for this job. She worked with the Department of Justice on Federal court litigation in which the Commission was involved.

In her current role as Executive Director, she is the chief operating officer of the Agency, ensuring that it meets program and operational and administrative functions. She is more than well-versed in the Agency's processes and eminently qualified to hit the ground running as a Commissioner.

Over 90 different organizations have written to my office in support of her nomination, including the AFL-CIO, the Consumer Federation of America, the National Consumers League, Kids in Danger, and many, many more organizations.

I want to say to all my colleagues, I hope you will vote to confirm Ms. Boyle to ensure that the Consumer Product Safety Commission can move forward so that these important issues can be addressed and Americans can find safer products in their homes.

I look forward to working with Ms. Boyle at a critical time for the Agency in making sure that these products are safe and that Americans are protected from dangerous and defective products. Unanimous Consent Agreement--Executive Calendar
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