Democrats

American Consumer Product Safety Commission Policies

October 30, 2007 ⋅  E-Mail Article ⋅  Print Article ⋅ Post a comment

President Bush and the White house have said that the Consumer Product Safety Commission does not need a bigger boost and more resources but we all know differently. Does this sound like someone wanting to take care of you or does it sound like a ventriloquist’s dummy being worked by the lobbyists of big businesses who don’t want the free flow of deadly imports and dangerous outsourcing to end. We must not affect the bottom line of big business regardless of how much sense it makes. In the wake of numerous toy recalls, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on called for President Bush to fire the head of the nation’s product safety agency and increase the agencies resources.

Pelosi was upset at the letter released from Acting Chairwoman Nancy Nord to senators that criticized proposed legislation designed to increase resources for the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s authority. The proposal in the Senate calls for increasing funding levels and staff, requiring third-party certification of children’s products, and increasing civil and criminal penalties.

Speaker of the House Pelosi stated, “Anyone who doesn’t think the agency needs more resources does not understand the gravity of the situation and does not understand the concerns that America’s parents have for the safety of their children.” The letter by Nord harshly criticizes portions of the proposed legislation such as increasing the maximum penalty for firms violating standards to $100 million from less than $2 million. She wrote that a $10 million maximum would be a better option.

She states, “ I do not believe that there is a need for this level of penalty cap and that such a relatively high cap may have the undesired consequence of firms, as a precautionary measure, flooding the agency with virtually every consumer complaint and incident of any kind, regardless of any actual product safety issue, making it more likely that true safety issues will go unrecognized in the process.”

Just like they tried to cap insurance lawsuits and other various lawsuits designed to protect the bottom line of big business, this is another attempt by big business lobbyists to limit the losses of their companies bottom lines. However, the difference here is your life may be at risk.

What do you think?

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