From: David Arkush, Public Citizen
To: [redacted]
Sent: Friday, February 06, 2009 10:58 AM
Subject: Urgent: Our safety is at risk
**URGENT ALERT** **URGENT ALERT**
[redacted]
Last summer, you shared a victory with us when theConsumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) was signed into law. The new law brought several much-needed protections for consumers and their children, such as making sure children's toys are free from lead and other toxic chemicals before they are sold.
But now these protections are under attack. Senator Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) is trying to undermine the new law with an amendment to the economic stimulus package that would roll back safety requirements for manufacturers.
URGENT: It's time to stop toying with safety!
Call your senators TODAY and tell them to reject any effort to change the CPSIA.
Find your senator here.
Learn more at ToyingWithSafety.org.
Sen. DeMint's pernicious amendment would gut critical consumer protections and allow millions of defective and dangerous products to be sold to consumers. He claims to be helping small business, but his amendment isn't necessary for that. The Consumer Product Safety Commission can address small business' concerns without putting consumers at risk. In fact, the DeMint amendment would likely harm businesses because consumers are wary of buying products if they're not sure they're safe.
We need you to stand up for product safety and contact your senators TODAY. Tell them to reject Jim DeMint's amendment and any other effort to change the CPSIA!
You can find your senator here, or simply call the Capitol switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask for your senator.
Thank you for all you do,
Public Citizen's Congress Watch Action Team
action@citizen.org
P.S. - Let us know how your call went. Email us at action@citizen.org.
_________________________________________________________
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For more information, go to: ToyingWithSafety.org.
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The above is what they say. Here's what I say:
Read what the Senator has to say about his bill for yourself. These are the six main points:
Senator DeMint’s legislation (S. 374) has six major reforms:
1. Delays the overreaching regulations six months so that all parties can work together to address the needs of our small businesses and the needs of product safety.
2. Allows small manufacturers to use the testing and certification that their component suppliers have done to certify that the components do not contain an impermissible amount of lead. This will save small manufacturers from having to subject their products -- many of which are made in small runs -- to duplicative and expensive multi-thousand dollar tests.
3. Exempts thrift stores, yard sales, consignments shops and other re-sellers from the prohibitions in the act. Goodwill, the Salvation Army and your local flea market were never the source of the product safety concerns encountered last year, and they won’t be in the future. They are good actors trying to provide Americans of modest means with value oriented products. They shouldn’t be subjected to tens of thousands of dollars in potential liability.
4. Prevents retro-active enforcement of the act. There are millions of dollars of safe products in the warehouses and stores around the country today, which could become un-sellable under CPSIA. This will prevent thousands of products from being destroyed and the livelihood of thousands of businesses from being threatened.
5. Provides a Good-Faith Exemption. The act and its associated regulations are extremely complex. Small manufacturers are having difficulty understanding what the act requires of them. While many small businesses are doing their best to comply with the act it's possible someone could accidentally run afoul of the act. If they can show that their error was made in good-faith, my bill will provide them with a one-time exemption from sanction.
6. Requires the CPSC to provide small businesses with a compliance guide. This is an extremely technical regulation that impacts a number of small businesses who don’t have large compliance departments to decipher the regulations for them. Senator DeMint’s bill would require the CPSC, in consultation with the state and federal small business agencies, to develop a compliance guide that addresses the concerns of the small business community.
In the next couple of days you should be able to read the text of the bill here.
Suggested actions:
Email Arkush, politely but firmly pointing out why you disagree and your concerns about the bill as written.
Contact your Senators and beg them, bully them, or bring them cookies to get them to support CPSIA reform. Send them quotes. Point out that NCDC doesn't even understand the bill they supported and falsely believes it doesn't apply to them.
Contact the President, explaining it all over again.
Contact Waxman, Pelosi, Rockefeller and other influential Democrats and say it all over again.
Write letters to your editor.
Call your local thrift shops and consignment stores and ask what they are doing to comply.
Visit some of the blogs and news sites where CPSIA is discussed- especially when it's discussed by people who don't have a clue, and explain what the problems are.
Tell your friends and family and ask them to contact their reps in office and not take platitudes and 'the commission can do what it wants' for answers.
Other ideas? Pin It
