Expresses disappointment in
Senator Martinez’s several anti-safety votes
Tallahassee — Florida PIRG, a leading Florida consumer
group that has published annual toy safety surveys for over twenty years today
applauded U.S. Senate passage of comprehensive legislation to “give the CPSC the
money and authority” it needs to protect the public from dangerous products.”
Florida PIRG did, however, criticize Senator Martinez, who “voted in favor of
several weakening amendments.”
“The Senate soundly defeated several special interest
weakening amendments requested by the manufacturers of the toys and products
that made 2007 the year of the recall,” said Brad Ashwell, Consumer Advocate for
Florida PIRG. “There is broad support for final passage of safety legislation
that protects the public, not special interests.”
The bi-partisan Senate CPSC Reform Act, S. 2663,
sponsored by Sens. Mark Pryor (D-AR), Daniel Inouye (D-HI), Ted Stevens (R-AK),
Susan Collins (R-ME), Dick Durbin (D-IL) and others, now heads to a conference
committee to reconcile differences with the companion legislation, HR 4040
(Reps. Bobby Rush (D-IL), John Dingell (D-MI), Joe Barton (R-TX) and others)
passed by the House in December.
Among the highlights of the Senate
bill:
-- It
increases the CPSC budget over 7 years from last year’s $64 million to $155
million in 2015 and gives state attorneys general broad authority to enforce the
federal law.
-- It
establishes a public right-to-know database of complaints and injury reports at
the CPSC.
--It
gives the CPSC broader jurisdiction over toys not currently regulated, including
the dangerous small magnets that have killed one little boy and sent dozens of
others to emergency surgery.
--It
bans toxic lead in children’s products except at trace levels.
-- It
protects product safety whistleblowers from retaliation.
“While several of these provisions make the Senate bill
more comprehensive than the House bill, which we called a good first step when
it passed, we intend to make sure that the final law signed by the President
includes the best elements of each bill, including the House’s better definition
of children’s product as intended for children under 12, not 7 years of age, as
the Senate would require,” added Ashwell.
During debate on the Senate floor, a number of weakening
amendments were offered, including an amendment by Senator Jim Demint (R-SC) to
simply substitute the narrower, industry-supported House bill and one by Senator
Jon Cornyn (R-TX) to weaken authority of state attorneys general. Both
amendments were defeated.
“We’re disappointed that while Senator Martinez voted
for the final bill, he supported these two unsuccessful amendments designed to
weaken the comprehensive, bi-partisan Senate bill,” added Ashwell.
“We also want to commend Senator
Boxer/Feinstein/Bill Nelson/Dick
Durbin/Ted Stevens (!)/Amy Klobuchar/Claire McCaskill/ Salazar/Harkin for their
critical leadership in co-sponsoring and helping to move this
bill.”
Among the organizations joining Florida PIRG in support
of the Senate bill are Consumers Union, Consumer Federation of America, the
American
Academy of Pediatrics,
Public Citizen and the Union of Concerned
Scientists.
“If we are going to protect children and the public from
the growing number of shoddy, imported toys coming onto our shores and into our
stores each year, we need a bigger, better CPSC backstopped by 50 state
attorneys general,”Ashwell concluded. “It’s time for Congress and the President
to finish the job of tightening our toy safety
net.”
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Florida PIRG is a non-profit, non-partisan public
interest advocacy organization. For 22 years, Florida PIRG and other state
PIRG’s have produced an annual “Trouble In Toyland” report that has resulted in
over 120 recalls and other corrective actions.
WWW.FLORIDAPIRG.ORG
