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Betting on the CPSC–never a sure bet

Earlier this week the Senate Commerce Committee had a marathon confirmation hearing with several subcabinet nominees from various federal agencies. The hearing included in this disparate group Commissioner Robert Adler who has been nominated for a second seven year term on the CPSC. Because of the number of nominees before the Committee and votes on the Senate floor, the hearing was rather truncated without much probing of Commissioner Adler’s views on issues before the CPSC.

Nevertheless, Senator Thune, the senior Republican on the Committee, did ask Commissioner Adler to explain the agency’s delay in implementing PL 112-28, which directed the agency to work to reduce the costs of third party testing. Senator Thune made similar inquiries with the two earlier nominees, demonstrating that he has concerns with the manner that the agency is implementing the law.

Commissioner Adler’s response to Senator Thune was both interesting and disturbing for at least two reasons. First, Commissioner Adler said that because of the way the law is written, it is “not easy to come up with” constructive ways to reduce burdens. Huh?! The public has presented many suggestions over the years as has the agency staff. What is not easy is to get the Commission to devote the staff resources to get the job done. This is a problem of the Commission’s own making and clearly the Commission does not want to clean up after itself—to do so would implicate several of the rules the agency put in place without regard to the burdens them impose. The Congress told the CPSC that if it needed additional authorities to get the job done, then it was to come back to Congress with a request for tool to do the job. No such report has been sent. In other words, it is too hard to do the job, but the agency will not ask for what it needs to do the job. In the meantime, scare resources are being spent on testing that does not advance safety.

Second, to demonstrate his commitment to carrying out Congressional direction, Commission Adler pointed to the one proceeding the agency has ongoing to address burden reduction. This proceeding is to come up with “determinations” that certain products do not and cannot contain phthalates and various heavy metals. This determinations proceeding, first suggested in 2011, finds precedent in similar action the agency took in 2009 to determine certain materials did not contain lead and so did not require testing. However, the lead determinations took the agency a matter of months to put in place not the years that the current proceeding is eating up.

Commission Adler also stated that the determinations will solve the problem saying that the “small businesses I have talked to want expanded determinations” as if this is all they want. Of course, if you are a small business making toys out of natural wood, you do not want to have to test for phthalates and heavy metals when you know they are not present. That is pretty obvious. However, there are many other small businesses who look to the federal government not to put in place regulations that impose costs without added safety benefits; who want the federal government to consider laws in other jurisdictions and minimize repetitive testing; and who want to be able to have manufacturing processes that are flexible enough to meet market demands without having to stop to do third party testing when this does not add to safety but does impact their bottom line and their ability to expand and create jobs.

If confirmed, Commissioner Adler will be in office until 2021. I was thinking about starting a pool on whether the agency will actually complete meaningful action to reduce testing burdens before his new term expires. But given the agency’s pace and progress so far, betting on the agency to act is not a sure bet.

Time for Doing the Work, Not Looking for Shortcuts

Published May 5, 2014 Burden Reduction , Cost Benefit Analysis , CPSC , CPSIA , PL 112-28 Leave a Comment
Tags: admin law, burden reduction, cost-benefit analysis, CPSC, CPSIA, regulation

Those who follow the CPSC closely expect that the President’s new commission nominees will be confirmed soon. The question is: will new leadership change either the tone or the direction of the agency? Two exchanges during the confirmation hearings made my ears perk up since they went to that question. Both exchanges addressed the regulatory approach of the nominees.

The first exchange dealt with testing burden reduction. Remember that PL 112-28 directed the Commission to undertake actions to reduce the costs of third party testing or report back to Congress if it needed additional authorities. Senator John Thune noted that the agency has done nothing to implement measures to reduce costs in any meaningful way. Senator Thune asked each nominee, upon confirmation, to provide the Senate Committee with their plans for implementing efforts to reduce testing costs. Senator Thune has given the nominees a real opportunity to show leadership and provide actual relief from the agency’s overly-expansive and costly testing approach—which does not provide consumers with additional safety but does add additional costs to the products they buy.

So as the two nominees craft their plans in response to Senator Thune’s request, will those plans reflect business as usual, with the agency doing only enough to make it appear that it is doing its legal duty but still managing to avoid any real change? Or will those plans show a thoughtful and creative approach to fixing a problem that Congress and members of the public have identified but which the leadership of the agency, up to this point, has sought to minimize?

Another interesting exchange during the hearing dealt with procedures for issuing regulations. While addressing the five-year delay in issuing rules for recreational off-road vehicles, the nominee for Chairman, Mr. Kaye, bemoaned the lack of “express” rulemaking authority in the Consumer Product Safety Act. He attributed regulatory delays to the findings the agency has to make before issuing a final rule and the cost-benefit analysis that he said was “unique” to the CPSC (implying that such analysis was overly burdensome). But Mr. Kaye did not identify which findings and what aspects of cost-benefit analysis are overly burdensome to the agency. Having that information would provide the basis for a good discussion on regulatory policy at the agency.

Section 9 of the CPSA (15 U.S.C. 2058) spells out how the agency must go about issuing product safety rules or bans. The law states that before the agency initiates rulemaking it must make some preliminary effort to assure itself that the rule is indeed needed. Those efforts include:

a first-cut at describing the potential costs and benefits of the proposed rule;
a discussion of why any existing voluntary standard is not adequate; and
a description of reasonable alternatives to the rule and why those alternatives should not be considered.

But which of these points of analysis do those advocating for express rulemaking want to eliminate? Do we really want federal agencies beginning the rulemaking process without doing initial homework in the form of some upfront analysis to assure the public that the proposed direction is correct? To my ears, the complaint that doing your homework is too hard rings hollow.

But perhaps it is the cost benefit analysis that must been done during the rulemaking process that is the problem for those complaining about burdens and advocating express rulemaking. The law states that the analysis must include a description of the potential benefits and potential costs of the rule and a description of the alternatives to the rule that the commission considered, the costs and benefits of those alternatives and a description of why they were not chosen. But the law merely states explicitly what necessarily should be included in any competent regulatory analysis. Unless we are willing to agree that the feds are always right in their regulatory approach, would we not want any agency to gather, write down and then actually consider that information before regulating?

I suspect that the real problem for those advocating for express rulemaking is the law’s expectation that the data will be used to inform results–that the agency actually will use the data to tailor or perhaps even change its preferred regulatory approach. The law tells the agency that it may not issue a rule unless it finds, among other things, that

the benefits of the rule bear a reasonable relationship to its costs; and
the rule imposes the least burdensome requirement to adequately address the risk.

In other words, if the agency’s preferred regulatory approach is not the most efficient way to address a risk, then Congress expects the agency to change its approach.

Here are a couple of follow-up questions to the nominees. Do we want the agency to be able to regulate without regard to costs and benefits? Should not the agency have to change its preferred approach if the costs and benefits are not reasonably related? Do we want the agency to impose requirements that are more burdensome than they need to be and do so out of ignorance because it did not bother to consider alternatives? I submit that we do not. And I believe that experience over the past four years illustrates the importance of these requirements. Several extremely costly and burdensome rules were put into effect without the analysis described above since the CPSIA did not require that analysis. Indeed, PL 112-28 was passed because the testing rule, not subjected to that analysis, resulted in costs that are excessive.

Regulation is not and should not be easy. If data shows the need for a rule, then the agency should roll up its sleeves and get to work, not complain about how hard it is and look for shortcuts. It will be interesting to see if the new leadership is up for doing the hard work.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

Published April 4, 2014 Burden Reduction , CPSIA , P.L. 112-28 , Testing Leave a Comment
Tags: burden reduction, CPSC

Yesterday the CPSC held an all-day meeting to again address ways to reduce the costs of third party testing. Recall that three years ago, in Public Law 112-28, Congress told the agency of its concern that testing costs were imposing an undue burden and directed the agency to identify and implement opportunities to reduce that burden. Over the past three years, the agency has asked for public comment on opportunities to reduce testing costs three, or is it four, times (but who’s counting).

Yesterday’s meeting focused on whether the agency should make “determinations” that certain substances do not and cannot contain phthalates and the various heavy metals listed in the toy standard, ASTM F-963. This inquiry is patterned after the action the agency took in 2009 when it determined that certain substances, such as natural fibers and untreated wood for example, did not and could not contain lead and so therefore there was no need to test for it.

Perhaps the agency will determine that the same substances that are exempt from lead testing should also be exempted from testing for phthalates and heavy metals. If it does, then perhaps that action will provide a bit of relief for those companies that have been engaged in such useless testing.

But I have two questions for the agency:

(1) What took you so long to reach such an obvious conclusion?

(2) What more are you going to do to carry out Congress’ mandate or do you plan to stop there?

The agency was able to make its lead testing determinations very quickly and with a minimum of regulatory gyrations. It has taken the current agency three years to even make an inquiry into questions that should have been very easy to answer. What may come out of this exercise is very minimal relief with maximum patting oneself on the back for reducing testing costs. I do hope the agency proves me wrong.

What’s Wrong With This Picture?

Published March 26, 2014 Burden Reduction , Consumer Product Safety , Rule Review , Testing Leave a Comment
Tags: burden reduction, CPSC, risk

“[I]ndependent regulatory agencies should consider how best to promote retrospective analysis of rules that may be outmoded, ineffective, insufficient, or excessively burdensome, and to modify, streamline, expand, or repeal them. . .”. President Barack Obama, Executive Order 13579, July 2011.

A small announcement in the March 17 Federal Register noted that the CPSC would be collecting information on compliance with the mattress flammability standard that deals with fires caused by smoldering cigarettes, 16 CFR 1632. Why would anyone notice or care?

For those who took President Obama at his word when he announced his executive order, this is just another reminder of how one agency, the CPSC, in its push to regulate, has chosen to ignore basic principles of good government. Here’s the back story.

Years ago, the CPSC promulgated a safety standard for mattresses addressing the risk of fires caused by smoldering cigarettes. The test in the standard consisted of laying several of the hottest burning commercially available cigarettes—unfiltered Pall Mall’s—on a mattress and measuring char length after a prescribed time.

In 2006, the agency issued another safety rule addressing the risk of mattress fires caused by small open flames from such things as candles, lighters and matches, 16 CFR 1633. The test for that standard consists of holding two propane burners to the mattress and measuring the time it takes the mattress to ignite. This test is a much more rigorous test than that required by the earlier cigarette smoldering test.

For several years now, I have been asking the question why require two separate tests when it is likely that one will suffice to measure the flammability characteristics of mattresses. It is unlikely that a mattress could pass the open flame test but fail the cigarette smolder test. The agency now has sufficient experience with the more rigorous open flame standard to determine whether the cigarette smoldering standard is really needed. Would it not be a new and interesting experience to see the CPSC consider actually repealing a standard as being unneeded?

A perversely amusing aspect of this question is the fact that the unfiltered Pall Mall cigarettes required to be used for the testing were phased out by the manufacturer several years ago. Further, all 50 states now prohibit the sale of any cigarettes other than reduced ignition propensity (RIP) cigarettes—those that go out if the smoker does not continually puff on them. The CPSC’s reaction to these developments was not to question the need for the underlying regulation but instead to use public funds to develop a new test cigarette. This new government-developed cigarette is available for purchase from the National Institute for Standards and Technology.

Where does all this leave us? The CPSC continues to enforce a standard that on its face does not comport with what is happening in the real world. Mattress manufacturers are forced to buy cigarettes that no one will ever smoke to perform a test that may well be irrelevant. The consumer pays the cost of excessive testing. And the CPSC, rather than asking the important question of whether this regulation is even needed, instead issues a Federal Register notice telling us about its plans for enforcing it. Does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?

“Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” Albert Einstein

Published February 25, 2014 Burden Reduction , Comment Request , Testing Leave a Comment
Tags: burden reduction, CPSC, Testing Rule

For the third (or is it the fourth?) time in as many years, the CPSC is again “addressing” the issue of reducing third-party testing burdens. For those who have already commented repeatedly on this issue, Einstein’s definition of insanity may seem especially apt. In spite of direction from the Congress to either address testing burdens on its own or report on appropriate statutory authority needed to do so, the agency has repeatedly asked for comment but done nothing to actually reduce the testing burdens that have been so well documented.

This time the agency has announced that it will be holding a workshop, on April 3, focusing on reducing testing burdens associated with the regulations dealing with phthalates and lead content and the eight substances listed in the ASTM F-963 Toy Standard. The purpose is consider whether it is possible to determine that certain materials, irrespective of manufacturing origin or process, will always comply with agency regulations and therefore do not need testing. The agency is interested in worldwide production processes—past, current and, interestingly, future—but only with respect to the three areas noted above. In other words, tell them how past and current materials and manufacturing processes, and looking into a crystal ball, those that might be used in the future throughout the world show that the existing regulations in the three areas always will be complied with. Anything else is outside the scope of this inquiry.

Because the agency’s scope of inquiry is so narrow, it follows that any relief coming out of it will also be very narrow. So while I encourage either comments (due by April 17) or participation in the workshop (sign up by March 13), I do not have high hopes that meaningful burden reduction will be the end product. At best, there might be a slight adjustment to the list of materials the agency has determined do not and cannot contain lead and, hence, do not need testing. The further development of a list of materials determined not to have phthalates and the other substances listed in the toy standard may also be of help. At worst, the information collected will go into the maw of the agency and be digested with the other information the agency has already collected, but with no further useful output any time soon, other than for the agency to look like it is busy doing something.

There have been many practical suggestions made over the past three years that, if implemented, would reduce the needless waste of resources that the testing requirements have added to the supply chain and which consumers have to pay for. But the agency has been operating in a world that values endless process over meaningful results.

Einstein also said “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.” Unfortunately, it does not look like any new thinking will be happening soon.

CPSC Burden Reduction Mantra: “Maybe One of These Years . . .”

Published November 27, 2013 Burden Reduction , Consumer Product Safety , CPSC , CPSIA , Testing 1 Comment
Tags: CPSC, CPSIA, regulation, Testing Rule

An interesting op-ed in last week’s Wall Street Journal pointed to how the regulatory process impedes efforts called for by President Obama, among others, to shore up this country’s infrastructure. The piece, written by Philip Howard, President of the nonpartisan reform group Common Good, focused on how interminable environmental review can stymy public projects and made several interesting suggestions for change.

As I read Mr. Howard’s article, I could not help but think about how the regulatory process has been used at the CPSC to slow activity, mandated by Congress and required by common sense, to reform the product testing regime dictated by CPSC regulations. Recall that the testing rules setting the parameters for when products must be tested by independent third party testing labs imposed such impressive costs on the system that Congress told the agency to find ways to reduce those costs. That was in 2011. As we head into 2014, the agency has managed to avoid adopting any concrete relief to those who are now required to conduct unnecessary and expensive testing. The Commission has done this by repeatedly asking for public comment on the same questions over and over again.

Last week the Commissioners met to adopt an operating plan for the rest of FY 2014. Predictably, the issue of reducing testing burdens came up and, predictably, the Commissioners again punted. This time, the agency staff was directed to finish their analysis of the public comments on a limited set of suggestions for relief by the end of FY 2014. A majority of Commissioners rejected the notion of asking Congress for statutory changes suggested by the agency staff to make operation and review of safety processes more efficient. Clearly, a majority of CPSC Commissioners do not see reducing unnecessary testing burdens as a core duty of the agency.

It is remarkable that for the past three years, product manufacturers have been conducting expensive testing that most (outside of a handful of advocates with a political agenda and several CPSC Commissioners) do not see as necessary to assure the safety that American families rightly expect. That those families have to shoulder the costs of this added weight to the system seems to be a forgotten fact. I know that I have written about this issue before. But as a consumer, I am mad. I am mad that my choices are being limited and that, for example, I cannot buy beloved toys that are safe but are no longer being imported only because of the CPSC testing rules. I am mad that I have to overpay for safety regulations of questionable value.

Rather than blindly defending regulations that are costing consumers without advancing safety, the CPSC should give them a thanksgiving gift: how about getting down to work and stopping the procrastination on this. It is time for big strides, not baby steps.

Singing a Different Tune?

Published October 31, 2013 Budget , Burden Reduction , CPSIA , Testing , Uncategorized 1 Comment

Why put off until tomorrow what you can do today? With respect to reducing the unjustified costs of its testing rule, the Commission has followed the notion of why correct today the problems you have made when you can put them off until tomorrow . . . or maybe until never.

We all know the history: in 2011, Congress told the agency to look for ways to reduce testing costs and if it needed new authorities to do that, then ask for those authorities. Since 2011, the agency has asked the public repeatedly for comments on how to carry out that mandate. In spite of good suggestions from the public and from the staff, the Commission has taken no real action to implement any of those suggestions for well over two years. In the meantime, product sellers are having to pay for tests that do not necessarily enhance safety but cost consumers in terms of higher prices and fewer choices.

I have written about this over and over again until I sound like a broken record. Indeed, perhaps the CPSC theme song should be “Maybe Tomorrow” by the Jackson Five. How about Amy Winehouse’s “Procrastination”? Or is it better to stick with an old standard such as Sinatra’s “Call Me Irresponsible”?

Given all this, I was surprised and pleased to hear all four Commissioners at yesterday’s briefing on the agency’s FY’14 Operating Plan say how much they each supported moving ahead with efforts to reduce testing burdens. The two new Commissioners are dealing with this issue for the first time, and so their reaction that this is an issue overdue for attention makes perfect sense. But it was startling to hear Chairman Tenenbaum and Commissioner Adler join that particular chorus since they have been less than positive about moving this issue forward.

Why this change of tune? Perhaps the need to respond to inquiries from the Congress about the agency’s inaction has triggered this sudden interest. And perhaps hard questions from new Commissioners has jolted them out of their somnolence on this issue. At the briefing, there seemed to be some acknowledgement that products made from manufactured woods were real candidates for relief. It would be a pity if the agency stopped there. As Commissioner Buerkle pointed out, there are plenty of other areas where relief seems to be warranted.

And hard questions need to be asked about why this is taking so long. Comments were submitted months (years) ago and there has been plenty of time to read, analyze, come to some conclusions, and initiate some real actions by the agency—if only the Commission gave the signal to do so. Unfortunately, for example when I, as a Commissioner, tried to include some action to bring this to conclusion in the FY’14 budget, my effort was summarily rejected by both Chairman Tenenbaum and Commissioner Adler. So it was especially gratifying that both now appear to have joined their colleagues in singing about the need for some relief.

To continue the musical theme, the agency now has some New Kids on the Block. I hope we will hear their hit song, “No More Games” start being played at the CPSC.

Listening to Constructive Criticism

Published October 24, 2013 Burden Reduction , Compliance , CPSIA , Penalties , Recalls , Testing Leave a Comment

Yesterday, I met with representatives of the National Association of Manufacturers Product Safety Coalition. Participants at the meeting represented a broad spectrum of businesses that make and sell consumer products, and so are under the jurisdiction of the CPSC, and they shared their concerns over the direction the agency is headed. Here is a summary of some concerns expressed at the meeting:

A perceived breakdown in communications between the agency and business stakeholders is causing great frustration among those trying to comply with CPSC requirements.
The proposed rule setting out voluntary recall procedures was labeled as “a solution in search of a problem.” Great concern was expressed that this rule could make the process more time-consuming and resource intensive, both for the companies and the agency.
The move to mandate corporate compliance programs as a part of a penalty settlement or as part of a voluntary recall is viewed as excessively intrusive. If the agency insists on these programs as part of recall corrective action plans (as allowed by the proposed voluntary recall rule), this insistence will slow down the recall process greatly.
There seems to be no logic or systematic rationale about how penalties are being assessed so that past penalties are not predictive of future penalty demands. The process for referring cases to the Department of Justice is opaque.
While agency participation in the voluntary standards process is welcome and helpful, there is concern that technical discussions need to be held in an environment that fosters and encourages full participation from corporate technical experts. There is also concern that voluntary standards are becoming de facto mandatory standards.
Questions were raised about why the agency is moving forward with a wholesale change to the certification requirements (as proposed in the rule changes to 16 CFR 1110). Companies have already set up systems to implement existing certification requirements and changing those systems will be resource intensive and is not justified.
There is ongoing concern that the agency is not moving forward with addressing the burdens that are associated with its testing and certification regime. There is a great deal of unnecessary testing being done, especially with respect to phthalates. A plea was made for aligning our standards with other international standards.

While a number of other issues were raised, the participants also reaffirmed their underlying support for the agency and its important safety mission. The message I took away is that we need to interact with our business stakeholders in a more collaborative and cooperative manner. Obviously, the range of issues we deal with is so broad that without this collaboration, we will not succeed in carrying out our mission to protect consumers.

CPSC to Congress: Still Kicking the Can

Published October 21, 2013 Burden Reduction , Congress , HR 2715 , Testing 4 Comments

The government shutdown eclipsed an important letter that the agency received on October 1 from our congressional overseers asking us explain our failure to move forward on addressing the costs of CPSIA-mandated third-party testing. You will recall that Public Law 112-28 required us to address those costs and let the Congress know if we needed new authorities to do so. Congress asked for a response by October 21—today. No answer has yet gone back to the Hill, although the shutdown explains some brief delay.

But every day that we delay in reducing the costs of often-unnecessary testing we fail to perform our job to regulate rationally, opening the agency up to deserved criticism. And it is no wonder that Congress asks why we haven’t addressed this issue. To review: In November 2011, we asked the public for ideas on reducing testing costs and, based on some of those comments, our staff came up with a list of 16 recommendations. A year later, the Commissioners pared the list down to nine items, and then further shrunk it down to four ideas, none of which have been acted upon.

It has been said that there is a six-word formula for success: think things through, then follow through. Our regulations on third-party testing were not thought through, so Congress stepped in, asking us to try again and this time follow through by either addressing the problem or asking for authorities to do so. Our response? We kicked the can down the road. Maybe it’s wishful thinking, but I do hope this letter draws enough attention here to trigger real follow-through.

Like others, I will be most interested to read our response to the Congress, whenever it comes. One suspects we will point to the fact that we have gathered public comments on at three separate occasions. One further suspects we will plead poverty, saying we have no resources for doing this important work. But asking stakeholders to comment over and over again on the same issues does not advance the ball. And claiming lack of resources as preventing solutions to problems of our own making rings pretty hollow.

Ben Franklin said, “Never confuse motion with action.” We have had lots of motion. We need some action before those who would benefit just give up.

Unfinished Business

Published September 12, 2013 Burden Reduction , Congress , CPSC , CPSIA , Small Business , Testing Leave a Comment
Tags: burden reduction, CPSC, CPSIA, government, regulation

In Washington, sometimes repeating something often enough seems to make it true. We see this phenomenon working in the press stories and speeches marking the CPSIA’s fifth anniversary last month.

Although the law has its strengths and weaknesses, the real story is the unrealistic tack that the CPSC has taken in implementing the CPSIA, changing difficult circumstances into nearly impossible ones. Operating from the assumption that if some regulation is good, then more must be better, the agency embarked on a course that seeks to cover all risks—real, speculative, or imagined—rather than crafting regulations to address known unreasonable risks of injury. That our regulations go well beyond what the new law requires is not a fact that seems to concern us.

One problem with this approach is how divorced it is from the real world. Our regulations are overly-broad and so ultra-complex that only companies with swarms of lawyers can hope to fully understand and comply with them. Thus questions necessarily arise as to how to truly comply with our regulations. And, of course, those questions have been pouring into the agency.

This issue is brought home by a new report from the Handmade Toy Alliance documenting the experiences of small toy manufacturers and importers under the CPSIA and CPSC’s implementation of it over the past five years. HTA members are those who bring excitement, creativity, and imagination to the world of play. None of the products they make presented the safety issues that prompted the CPSIA. Yet this group has felt the brunt of the law more severely than others. Here are some of their observations about the impact of the CPSC’s implementation of the law:

“The [testing] rule overwhelmingly favors large manufacturers at the expense of smaller ones. . . . A small business owner could develop what they believe is a reasonable testing program, but it is unlikely to meet the CPSC’s strict interpretation.” HTA points out that we have designed a rule that tilts to the benefit of the large company and which small companies cannot meet.
Due to the onerous nature of the requirements, many small businesses will choose “the path of least resistance—to continue doing what they have done for years to assure they produce a safe product [and] use their experience and wisdom to guide design and manufacture, and [to] form relationships with their customers. . . . [S]ome portions of the requirements are adhered to and others are ignored because of costs and complexity.” In other words, small producers will focus on safety and only selectively comply with those portions of our rules they can meet or understand. Creating rules that do not improve safety but contribute to an approach of selective noncompliance is dereliction of our duty as regulators and stands rational regulatory policy on its head.
Further, some “handmade toy makers have simply gone out of business or chosen to make products that are not designed for children because the CPSIA and subsequent relief efforts preserve a hurdle too high for small business to clear.” I wonder why those who are praising the passage of the CPSIA find this to be a good result.

Are these not serious flaws attributable to the CPSIA and the agency’s implementation of it? I believe so and they are compounded by this agency’s unwillingness—through over two years of procrastination—to address the unnecessary burdens of our rules as we were directed to do by the Congress. The public has identified ways to ease the burdens, our staff has identified ways to ease the burdens, and I have even added to the list—yet we have not taken any action to implement concrete suggestions, all the while ignoring congressional directions to take action. The HTA report contains a list of actions the agency could take that would ease the burdens of small producers while maintaining safety.

HTA concludes, “The missteps of a few very large toy companies precipitated regulations which damaged thousands of small and micro U.S. businesses and continues to encumber those that survive. . . . Congress and the CPSC must move forward with meaningful solutions that are funded and given priority.”

I have raised these issues with my colleagues repeatedly (and as recently as this month when we voted on our upcoming regulatory agenda). I have been repeatedly outvoted and told that reducing the burdens of our regulations is not a priority of the agency. Again, I ask, when will we turn our attention to correcting the problems we made?

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