Gary Hart: “I also rise in support, obviously, of the Consumer Product Protection Act of 2002. I am pleased that the committee has…”

“I also rise in support, obviously, of the Consumer Product Protection Act of 2002. I am pleased that the committee has chosen to take action on it so quickly. Protecting consumers has always been an important issue for the Congress. It is also an issue I worked on as a State senator. I am pleased today to continue that important work. This act addresses an issue that is a result of a shortfall of the current Federal anti-tampering act. Under that act, it is a crime for an individual to alter the label of a product or harm the safety of a consumer. It is not, however, a crime to place an unwanted item in or on a product without causing harm to that product. For example, a message on a piece of paper placed inside a cereal box but outside of that product's inner bag is not a violation of current law. Someone could walk into your local market, slip pornographic material into the packaging of a food product without actually opening that package, and not be charged with a crime. To any consumer, the package would look perfectly fine without any evidence of tampering. The fact that this is not a crime seems ludicrous. That is why we are here today, to close this loophole in the law. Imagine opening a box of cake mix, finding a piece of literature with hate-filled messages and racial slurs; even worse, imagine if your child opened the package, finding such material.”