On the recordFebruary 18, 2011
This amendment would deny the Consumer Product Safety Commission the implementation of a searchable public consumer safety information database. Now this database was part of a bill that passed this House by 424-1. We required a database, and CPSC is ready to release this database. It's based on similar successful databases run at the present time by the Food and Drug Administration and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. It would allow consumers to report harms associated with consumer products and then to research risks associated with these particular products. This is exactly what the American people want. They want information. They have a right to know. And, in fact, every opinion poll indicates this. This amendment is a 'keep the consumers in the dark' amendment. Parents want to know if a toy is dangerous. This amendment would take away their right to go to a database that would give them this information. Now the claims against the database are pretty shocking. The manufacturers say, Well, this is going to be a problem because they're going to put things on the database that are trade secrets or inaccurate. This is simply not the case. There is a safeguard. In fact, there are safeguards after safeguards to protect manufacturers.
