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Working For Maine
Children and Families
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Maine’s working families face serious challenges. From finding affordable, quality child care and health insurance, to protecting children from their own toys, to planning for their children’s higher education expenses, it’s not easy to get by and plan for a comfortable and secure future.
Rep. Allen understands the difficulties that middle-class families face. Raising children and preparing for their future is more expensive than ever. For that reason, Rep. Allen is fighting to make college, child care, and health insurance more affordable.
Legislation
Recent recalls of popular children’s toys have shown that Congress must act to protect our children from dangerous toys. For these reasons, Congress passed, and the President signed into law H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Modernization Act. This bill will significantly improve the regulatory system to protect consumers. H.R. 4040 creates the toughest lead standards in the world for children’s products. The law also requires independent, Rep. Allen speaks with Jane Letson, owner of Apple Bee Company Toys in Portland about toy safety legislation.
third party testing of consumer products before they reach store shelves. This will ensure that toys and other products are inspected not by the companies that market them, but by independent companies. The bill also bans six types of phthalates, dangerous chemicals used to make plastics more flexible. If defective and dangerous toys make it through this stronger regulatory system, H.R. 4040 requires manufacturers to place labels on products and packaging to aid in recalling these products. The bill prohibits the sale and export of recalled products and improves public notice of recalls through the Internet, radio, and television. The law also increases funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the government agency tasked with keeping consumer products safe. The CPSC has been chronically underfunded and understaffed, with less than 400 staffers this year responsible for monitoring almost every product sold in the entire nation. The agency has been unable to ensure the safety of consumer products with such limited staff and resources. 
H.R. 814, the Children’s Gasoline Burn Prevention Act requires the same child-resistant caps for all gasoline containers, whether sold with or without gasoline. This measure was passed by the House and Senate and signed into law on July 17, 2008.
H.R. 1699, the Danny Keyser Child Product Safety Notification Act requires manufacturers of 12 durable infant and toddler products – including cribs, high chairs, strollers, bath seats, play yards, walkers, and swings – to provide postage-paid, privacy-protected recall registration cards with the products to allow consumers to register them by mail. H.R. 1699 was passed by the House in October. The Senate has yet to act on this legislation.
H.R. 1721, the Virginia Graeme Baker Pool and Spa Safety Act requires the use of safe drain covers at pools and spas, creates a grant program to encourage states to enact laws that require layers of protection in residential pools, and establishes a national public education program to educate parents about the dangers of pools and spas. This bill was also passed by the House in October, 2007. It has not yet been considered by the Senate.
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