CPSC Reform Act--Resumed

Floor Speech

CPSC REFORM ACT--RESUMED -- (Senate - March 06, 2008)

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I am proud to be a cosponsor of S. 2663, the CPSC Reform Act, and I would like to thank Chairman Inouye and Vice Chairman STEVENS for their leadership on this important and groundbreaking bill. I also want to thank Senator Pryor for his extraordinary work in crafting this outstanding bill which has strong bipartisan support.

The CPSC Reform Act will provide the Consumer Product Safety Commission with the authority and resources it needs to be more effective in its critical mission to protect consumers. Quite frankly, the current product safety system is broken, and the CPSC is in desperate need of reform. Too many unsafe goods are reaching the shores of the United States. Too many dangerous products are finding their way into the hands of American consumers, and all too often, young children.

It seems that over the past year, nearly every week we have had to frantically pull Chinese and other imported goods off store shelves as we learn of each new tainted product. The bottom line is that our safeguards are failing and we need to act fast to fix them. We worry about our kids when they are in class, when they are walking or driving home alone, even when they surfing the Internet. We should not have to worry that the toys they play with might be hazardous to their health or even fatal. From children's costume jewelry to toy trains, these recalls call in to question our ability to keep dangerous toys out of the hands of our kids.

For years, CPSC has been starved of funding and plagued by budget and personnel cuts. As a result, the effectiveness of the CPSC has been severely undermined and the agency, despite its efforts, has been unable to keep up with globalization of the marketplace. This bill will reverse those trends and give the CPSC the budget and the tools it desperately needs to again become an effective force for consumer protection. These important tools include $40 million to upgrade CPSC's laboratories and 50 additional personnel to inspect goods at U.S. ports and overseas product facilities. The bill will also give consumers better access to vital safety information by creating a searchable database that has information including reports of injuries, illness, and death related to the use of consumer products.

It is essential that we take strong steps to protect all consumers, but especially our children. This bipartisan bill takes a tough approach to cracking down tainted products and seeks to restore America's faith in the mechanisms we have in place to safeguard our kids against these dangerous products. First, the bill prohibits importing untested children's products. Second, it also requires tracking labels for children's products that will help parents tie safety recalls and alerts to their prior purchases. Third, the bill prohibits the sale of recalled products so that as parents and consumers, we don't continue to see these hazardous products on the shelves. Finally, this legislation bans all children's products containing lead.

The CPSC must do a better job of getting hazardous products off the shelves and out of consumers' reach, and these provisions will give the CPSC the tools to do just that. It is essential that manufacturers, importers, and retailers do their part to ensure product safety and keep tainted products out the market. This bill seeks to hold companies accountable by increasing criminal and civil penalties for those who knowingly and willingly violate product safety laws. It also gives State attorneys general the power to crack down on companies by enforcing Federal safety standards and provides them with the authority to get dangerous products off the shelf. Furthermore, the bill gives protection to whistleblowers so that employees who identify dangerous products along the supply chain can come forward with vital health and safety information without fear of reprisal.

As you can see, these are important commonsense solutions that will keep consumers informed and safe from dangerous products. Passage of this bill is vital if we hope to rebuild, reform, and revitalize the CPSC and restore America's faith in the agency's ability to protect consumers and their children from unsafe products. I urge my colleagues to support this critical legislation that restores the CPSC and gives it the much needed authority to put an end to the alarming trend in tainted products faced by this country in recent months.

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