Ed Whitfield: “On December 19 of last year, this body spoke with a resounding voice of approval for our Consumer Product Safety…”

“On December 19 of last year, this body spoke with a resounding voice of approval for our Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. The measure passed by a unanimous vote of 407-0. I would like to thank Chairman Dingell; Ranking Member Barton; Chairman Rush; and my predecessor, Mr. Stearns, for the great job that they did in getting this bill through the House. H.R. 4040 is a bipartisan product. We worked for 4 months and in the end came up with a stringent but reasoned approach to strengthen the Consumer Product Safety Commission and to vastly improve the safety of our children's products. The result was a bill that creates the toughest lead standard in the world and imposes mandatory safety standards on products for young children. To ensure such standards are met, we require third-party testing and certification of children's products and we nearly double the Consumer Product Safety Commission budget over 4 years to ensure both the new safety standards and the testing and certification requirements are met. All the new standards and increased enforcement in the world will not help parents unless they also know about dangerous products. We therefore require improved public notice of recalls as well as tracking labels on all children's products so parents can identify recalled toys when they hear about them.”