March 13, 2008
The United States Senate passed the CPSC Reform Act (H.R. 4040) on March 6, 2008 by a vote of 79-13. ANA had written members of the Senate about concerns we had with overly restrictive provisions relating to safety warnings on advertisements for children's toys and other products. Our letter pointed out that these types of warnings traditionally were required at the point of sale rather than in advertisements and emphasized the practical and constitutional issues with requiring a product's hazards be mentioned anywhere the product is discussed.
The bill that passed the Senate was amended to include language requiring safety warnings on advertisements only where a "direct means of sale" is provided.
The differences in the House- and Senate-passed versions of the bill must now be worked out in conference committee. The House version contains an option for the CPSC to conduct a rulemaking on this issue, which would provide it with more flexibility to decide what types of warnings would be most effective. We believe this language still needs some further refinements and will work to try to see that these changes are included in the final package.
If you have any questions, please contact Dan Jaffe in ANA's Washington office at 202-296-2359 or at djaffe@ana.net.
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