The National Association of Manufacturers' Consumer Product Safety Commission Coalition said it has "grave concerns about the CPSC Reauthorization Act (S. 2045) as presently drafted," on Oct. 30.
In a letter to the Senate Commerce Committee the NAM Coalition advocated increasing the Commission's budget and resources. "Under S. 2045, 50 different State Attorneys General will be able to sue manufacturers and distributors for actions that they each interpret and allege to be consumer product safety violations," the Coalition said. "This will result in inconsistent enforcement actions against companies in different states and would be especially harmful for small companies, requiring them to shift major resources toward litigation instead of product safety."
S. 2045 would also subject U.S. companies to up to $100 million in penalties, up from the current $1.825 million, if the CPSC alleges after the fact that a company failed to make a timely product recall report. "The proposed penalty increases will promote litigation rather than cooperation, and in turn will lead to much more delay in taking action to address unsafe products and protect the public," the Coalition said.
The NAM also expressed concern that the draft legislation makes an arbitrary change in proposed limits on lead without input from the toxicological community. "Restrictions on any material must be grounded in sound science," the NAM coalition said.
