Senator Jim DeMint has a reform bill in Committee right now.That link is to an article he wrote about it, this link is to a site where you can read the test of S. 374, his reform bill. THere is also a version in the House, here is where you can read the actual bill. Unfortunately, it's in the same Committee that gave us this bill in the first place.
HR 968, a House version of the same reform bill, is experiencing a similar fate in the House, languishing unheard in the same Committee that gave us this piece of legislature in the first place, and that committee is NOT interested in revisiting the issue or hearing what they've done wrong.
There was supposed to be a hearing where Rick Woldenberg and others could explain to Committees some of the flaws and possible fixes of the bill. This hearing was canceled, and Rick is getting mad, with good reason.
The Democrats, as the majority party, have complete control about when or if hearings scheduled.
Rick Woldenberg writes:
the hearings of the Subcommittee on Regulations and Healthcare (House Committee on Small Business) has been CANCELLED. This is the third time I have been invited and uninvited to testify before Congress. Mr. Waxman must be terrified to have me on the record.
Today he updated:
Having had a few hours to mull the cancellation of the hearings on CPSIA by the Subcommittee on Regulations and Healthcare of the House Committee on Small Business, I conclude that we need to flex our muscles if we want to stay in the game. This shameful display of partisan politics (lest we call it some form of “religious” zeal) is a real demonstration of the tyranny that confronts us. It’s all the more shocking that it took place at the supposedly non-partisan House Committee on Small Business – they should be EMBARRASSED (shamed, really). To me, it’s impossible to deny that our voices are being INTENTIONALLY kept off the record, and worse still, powerful people are attempting to undermine YOU with slander and marginalization. We CANNOT allow this to go on.
He says:
start calling the offices of the Small Business Committee (202-225-4038, ask for Erik Lieberman and leave a message if necessary on his voicemail) to inquire about why the hearings on the CPSIA were cancelled. We should tell them that the law is killing our small businesses, that we cannot comply with it, that it’s too complex and unrelated to safety risks and needs to be changed. Tell them that this is not all about crafters and dirt bikes – it’s about American small businesses trying to survive in a Depression! The hearings were essential to air out these issues. Ask for a response.
He has other links and comments as well, please read, and if you haven't called, PLEASE do, and if you already did, PLEASE do it again.
The following Members serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee. Please contact them and ask them to support HR 968, and specifically to exempt books, all books, not just those published after 1985, and thrift shops from all but the recall portions of the bill:
| Henry A. Waxman, CA, Chair |
| Joe Barton, TX, Ranking Member
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| John Dingell, MI, Chair Emeritus |
| Ralph Hall, TX |
| Edward Markey, MA |
| Fred Upton, MI |
| Rick Boucher, VA |
| Cliff Stearns, FL |
| Frank Pallone, Jr., NJ |
| Nathan Deal, GA |
| Bart Gordon, TN |
| Ed Whitfield, KY |
| Bobby Rush, IL |
| John Shimkus, IL |
| Anna Eshoo, CA |
| John Shadegg, AZ |
| Bart Stupak, MI |
| Roy Blunt, MO |
| Eliot Engel, NY |
| Steve Buyer, IN |
| Gene Green, TX |
| George Radanovich, CA |
| Diana DeGette, CO |
| Joseph Pitts, PA |
| Lois Capps, CA |
| Mary Bono Mack, CA |
| Michael Doyle, PA |
| Greg Walden, OR |
| Jane Harman, CA |
| Lee Terry, NE |
| Janice Schakowsky, IL |
| Mike Rogers, MI |
| Charles Gonzalez, TX |
| Sue Wilkins Myrick, NC |
| Jay Inslee, WA |
| John Sullivan, OK |
| Tammy Baldwin, WI |
| Tim Murphy, PA |
| Mike Ross, AR |
| Michael Burgess, TX |
| Anthony Weiner, NY |
| Marsha Blackburn, TN |
| Jim Matheson, UT |
| Phil Gingrey, GA |
| G.K. Butterfield, NC |
| Steve Scalise, LA |
| Charlie Melancon, LA |
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| John Barrow, GA |
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| Baron Hill, IN |
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| Doris Matsui, CA |
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| Donna Christensen, VI |
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| Kathy Castor, FL |
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| John Sarbanes, MD |
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| Christopher Murphy, CT |
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| Zachary Space, OH |
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| Jerry McNerney, CA |
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| Betty Sutton, OH |
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| Bruce Braley, IA |
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| Peter Welch, VT |
These are the members on the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, where the Senate Reform bill is currently languishing while mom and pop businesses disappear, pre-1985 books go into dumpsters, and children's clothing is removed from thrift shops if it has zippers, buttons, snaps, or grommets:
Democrats (this is how they are listed on the Committee's webpage):
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John D. Rockefeller, IV(Chairman)
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Daniel K. Inouye *
John F. Kerry *
Byron L. Dorgan *
Barbara Boxer *
Bill Nelson *
Maria Cantwell *
Frank R. Lautenberg *
Mark Pryor *
Claire McCaskill *
Amy Klobuchar *
Tom Udall *
Mark Warner *
Mark Begich Republicans*
Kay Bailey Hutchison(Ranking Member)
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Olympia J. Snowe *
John Ensign *
Jim DeMint *
John Thune *
Roger Wicker *
Johnny Isakson *
David Vitter *
Sam Brownback *
Mel Martinez *
Mike Johanns Here they are again with phone numbers-
Wacky Hermit called this list and said it took a whole fifteen minutes. She even offers a handy-dandy pronunciation guide and a short script of what she said.
John D. Rockafellar 202-224-6472
Kay Hutchinson 202-224-5922
Mark Begich 202-224-3004
Barbara Boxer 202-224-3553
Samuel Brownback 202-224-6521
Maria Cantwell 202-224-3441
Jim DeMint 202-224-6121
Bryon Dorgan 202-224-2551
John Ensign 202-224-6244
Daniel Inouye 202-224-3934
John Jackson 202-224-3643
Mike Johanns 202-224-4224
John Kerry 202-224-2742
Amy Klobuchar 202-224-3244
Frank Lautenberg 202-224-3224
Mel Martinez 202-224-3041
Claire McCaskill 202-224-6154
Bill Nelson 202-224-5274
Mark Pryor 202-224-2353
Olympia Snowe 202-224-5344
John Thune 202-224-2321
Tom Udall 202-224-5941
David Vitter 202-224-4623
Mark Warner 202-224-2023
Roger Wicker 202-224-6253
What should you say (besides SUPPORT CPSIA REFORM!!!)?
Put together your own list of talking points, the ones that matter most to you so you can speak most passionately about them. Make a few notes to keep with you on the phone- or script your comments completely.
To find out more, you could start here.There is a
helpful starting list of talking points here, and in a later post she added the suggestion to have an 'ask'- in this case, when you contact your representatives, ask them to support Senator DeMint's CPSIA reform bill, if you are contacting Senators, and HR 968 if you speaking to members of the House.
The Handmade Toy Alliance has a Myth vs Facts sheet that can also be used as a source for you to develop your own letter or list of talking points for contacting your reps, your local paper, your friends and relations.
Here are some of my thoughts (I am not terribly good at bullet points. My bullets tend to become minor novellas).
1) Duplicate testing is overly burdensome, in fact, impossible.
2) A good law is not overly burdensome or impossible to follow or understand.
3) If we must have testing and certification, it needs to be at the top of the supply chain and for imports.
4) It's not only redundant, costly, and burdensome to test as required by law- in some cases it is financially and physically impossible for thousands of end users to have to test their products, particularly when some of them are made in batches of only 1 to three or so. Books from library collections and One of a kind objects cannot be third party wet tested, even if it wasn't cost prohibitive, because the testing destroys the item.
5) We are punishing 100 percent of American businesses as well as safe businesses in Canada and Germany, places we know have strict standards in place and businesses that honor those standards, and yet, 80 percent of the recalls are associated with products from China.
6)- the third party testing is impossible for another reason- many testing facilities will not even work with micro-businesses, and the cost of testing is sometimes more than a product sells for annually.
7) The law regulates common sense out of the picture by treating the bikes of 12 year old children as though they were as risky as the teething rings of 1 year old children. It regulates common sense out of the picture by forbidding the agency to give any consideration to risk assessment.
a. Because risk assessment is not permitted: NO child has ever been made sick by lead in books. Yet the CPSC currently bans the selling of untested children's books published before 1985. This de facto book banning act will result in thousands of wonderful children's titles being removed from children's hands. Thrift shops and second hand stores won't take them any more for fear of being sued. Libraries cannot sell them and some are pulling them from the collection (mine) and forbidding public access. This law deprives current and future generations fo children access to some wonderful literature, because in times past when a children's title went out of print, the bookplates were often destroyed.
b. Because risk assessment is not permitted, the children's motorbike industry is destroyed, losing a billion dollars in business, entire businesses wiped out with the stroke of a pen, even though no child has ever mouthed a bike valve or chewed the brakes.
c. Because risk assessment is not permitted, children's stickers are severely impacted, even though a child would have to eat his weight in stickers before he got enough lead to make him sick.
8) The retroactive portions of this law are harshly unjust and in bad faith. Manufactures made products in good faith that were safe when they made them- and still are. They obeyed the law, and now the new law punishes them for that by wiping out their inventory overnight.
9) This law, as written, causes immeasurable harm, while not actually protecting children as it puports to do. (For the following
I am indebted to Kathleen Fasanella's response to Rep. Shakowsky's intemperate and inaccurate letter of complaint):
a. New rules for cribs:
Prior to the passage of the CPSIA, the CPSC had ample authority under the Federal Hazardous Substances Act and Consumer Product Safety Act to implement mandatory regulations but chose not to do so. The new crib standards to be promulgated not later than August 2016 under the CPSIA simply makes mandatory what the CPSC had the authority to implement since 1970.
None of the tragic crib related deaths in any way justify banning untested books published before 1985, razing the entire motorbike industry for kids to the ground and severly punishing all kindred businesses (dirt bike tourist industries, helmets, boots, specialized gear, dirt bike magazines, etc), destroying micro businesses that specialize in products like baby booties, bibs, or Irish dance costumes, flower girl dresses, ball point pens, and more.
b. The CPSIA cannot prevent deaths or injuries from hazards that are as yet unknown- the death and injury from swallowing two strong magnets was, at the time it happened, an unknown hazard. In response, well before the CPSIA, the CPSC had already reacted to keep children safe by updating the ASTM F963-07 standard to "establish criteria for use of magnets in toys." The CPSIA is a case of mandating the closing of a barn door after the cows have been found, brought home, and the door closed.
c. Lead in children's jewelry is a hazard, and I agree that we need to see this practice stopped. It is likely the CPSIA actually
prevented timely action on this hazard:
In February 2005, after recalling a number of items of children’s jewelry that presented such a hazard, the Commission issued a policy statement that set forth the criteria for evaluating the hazards associated with such jewelry. Subsequently, in January 2007, the Commission commenced a rulemaking proceeding to formally define children’s jewelry as a banned hazardous substance. In March 2008, five months before the passage of the CPSIA, the manufacturer paid a $1,000,000 civil penalty to resolve the Commission’s allegations that it violated the law [cit]. As far as can be determined, the January 2007 rulemaking proceeding has been tabled in light of the CPSIA which mandates specific levels of lead in children’s jewelry. It is clear, however, that the CPSIA was not necessary to regulate leaden children’s jewelry and in fact the rulemaking might have been completed already had Congress not intervened. As a result, it can be argued that the CPSIA actually delayed implementation of rules on leaden jewelry.
d)
CPSIA will not make children’s products safer but it will make them scarcer and more expensive. The law fails to incorporate concepts of risk assessment and will have the unintended consequence of devastating the business community and employment in this challenging economic environment.
10) The CPSIA harms disabled children by making it impossible for small businesses to continue to produce many of their adaptive devices and clothing. Most of these items are made in small batches and the redundant testing is simply impossible.
Personal example of my own: Our disabled child is difficult to fit, and she cannot manage buttons and snaps. While now our Jenny is capable enough to take over the task of sewing clothes that work for her, in the past, we have hired seamstresses to make special clothing for her that looks pretty (this is VERY important for a handicapped child, as people do respond to her differently based on how she looks, we can rail about this all we want, but it isn't even a conscious decision, it's just reality), fits her nicely, and she can dress herself. The CPSIA makes this transaction illegal, as my seamstresses, who were personally known to me, did not have the time, money, or inclination to mess with the labeling and testing required, nor did or do I believe that we need those things.
There is another GREAT wrap up from Walter Olson for today. Please read- thrift shops continue to pull clothing ( am so relieved for myself that my youngest child is now wearing a size 12 and is stocked up until next year, but so grieved for the thousands of families with small children who can no longer buy clothing at their thrift stores), and more, including this:
The Examiner, which has a wide readership in Washington, D.C., San Francisco, and other cities, is out today with a great editorial on CPSIA which also generously directs readers to this site and its “chilling” reports. It concludes: “This law is an utter disaster. Congress ought to fix it, immediately.” The Examiner also quotes Sen. Mark Pryor (D-Ark.), one of the law’s sponsors, as saying “the law allows the CPSC to make ‘commonsense exceptions’ to anti-lead requirements.” This is not the first time I have been obliged to wonder whether Sen. Pryor actually has a close familiarity with the terms of the bill he helped guide to passage, and if not, whose summaries he has been relying on when he talks to the press. 
It is precisely because the law does not confer on the CPSC any “commonsense exception” authority that the commission was obliged to turn down the makers of kids’ minibikes in their plea for an exemption the other day. Same for many other instances that could be cited, such as the pre-1985 books and the size 10 winter coats with zippers and snaps that are being yanked from thrift store shelves. Had the commission such a “commonsense exception” discretion, it would almost certainly have acted by now to defuse these sources of public outcry. To repeat the question: who does Sen. Pryor rely on for his briefings?
A very good question. Because we all know he's not reading the law, nor is he listening to regular voters.
Please. Call now.
Posts
," by Barrymore Laurence Scherer, which I am reading now and finding very interesting (and helpful). I found this passage interesting because sometimes I have found myself feeling the death scenes get 
