Thursday, April 29th beginning at 10am, the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection held a hearing to discuss the Consumer Product Safety Enhancement Act (CPSEA) and the impacts of this pending regulation on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA)
Witnesses included:
•Rosario Palmieri, Vice President for Infrastructure, Legal, and Regulatory Policy, National Association of Manufacturers
•Paul Vitrano, General Counsel, Motorcycle Industry Council
•Jim Gibbons, President and Chief Executive Officer, Goodwill Industries International
•Dan Marshall, Handmade Toy Alliance
•Rachel Weintraub, Director of Product Safety and Senior Counsel, Consumer Federation of America
•Steve Levy, American Apparel and Footwear Association
•Rick Woldenberg, Chairman, Learning Resources, Inc.
The CPSEA is a bill that would provide exceptions to lead and phthalate prohibitions and regulatory relief for thrift stores, small manufacturers, and other businesses.
The legislation seeks to resolve some of the concerns raised by various interested parties by addressing unforeseen impacts of CPSIA. To this end, the legislation provides three major forms of relief:
• New regulatory flexibility for CPSC to exempt certain products, components, and materials from the lead limits in CPSIA, with limitations to ensure protection of public health;
• Relief for thrift stores and other retailers through an exclusion for certain used children’s products from the lead limits, and a modification of the lead limit, set to take effect in August 2011, so that it will apply only to newly manufactured products;
• Relief for small batch manufacturers and other businesses by allowing the commission to approve alternative testing requirements for certain small batch manufacturers, by requiring CPSC outreach and assistance to small businesses, and by providing that the law’s phthalate limits shall not apply to inaccessible component parts.
The legislation also provides for a narrow set of improved and clarified authorities to allow the CPSC to carry out the law.
You can read the Committee Print of the CPSEA here.
You can review the Subcommittee on Commerce, Trade and Consumer Protection hearing of the CPSEA held on Thursday, April 29th, 2010 here.
Witnesses answered questions for almost two-hours, including testimony from Dan Marshall. Dan spoke eloquently about the needed use of alternative testing methods, specifically X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) analyzers. Dan also submitted an economic impact analysis that I (Seth Goldberg, President, Essco Safety Check) wrote back on January 22, 2010 entitled “the potential economic impact of the CPSIA” and the Handmade Toy Alliance (HTA) reposted this blog on February 11, 2010 “Allowing XRF testing for CPSIA compliance could save $3.7 Billion and save small businesses.”
If anyone has any question about this analysis that I wrote, please feel free to ask me questions.
