Consumer Protection
As your Congressman, I feel that it is of the utmost importance to keep consumer protection at the forefront of our legislative concerns. Listening to the news, you will often hear notices of food, toy or other product recalls. While America maintains one of the the safest systems of goods and consumer products in the world, recent incidences of food-borne illness and extensive product recalls have highlighted deficiencies in our system that must be addressed
I support legislative actions that will assist regulatory agencies such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and others agencies with governance over consumers goods to ensure that American households are confident that our products meet the highest level of safety and security.
International trade, part of today’s global economy, has sometimes introduced products into our markets that have not withstood the same rigorous safety testing that we enjoy for our own national products. The responsibility does not solely lie abroad, as the U.S. must remain strident in upholding the highest standards for the protection of goods to be consumed in this nation.
Toward this end, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement (Public Law No: 110-314) became law on August 14, 2008 aimed at strengthening consumer safety law for items for use by children. The new law requires that domestic manufacturers and importers certify that children’s products made after February 10, 2009 meet new safety standards and the lead ban. (Children’s products cannot be sold if they contain more than 600 parts per million (ppm) total lead.) The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is now in the process of implementing the new child safety law, and I am working closely with the Commission, as well as my colleagues in Congress, to be sure that true intent of Congress is realized and the regulations do not have an unintended negative effect on those products or services that do not pose an identifiable safety risk.
In addition, our governing food safety authorities are outdated and must be revised to reflect modern scientific standards and sound and strong policies implemented to help prevent food contamination. The Safe Food Enforcement, Assessment, Standards and Targeting Act, (Safe FEAST Act), which I have introduced, would help ensure the highest level of food safety standards in our nation’s food supply and put into place new mandatory food safety requirements to identify and prevent potential sources of food-borne illness.
In the interest of keeping your household safe from harmful products, the best defense is to keep yourself and your family informed of the latest updates on product recalls. I also want to work with small and independent businesses to
ensure that they are not left by the wayside when they have legitimate greivances. Please refer to the below list of links for information on regulations and product recalls. If you are experiencing difficulties with a federal regulatory
agency, please do not hesitate to contact a case worker in my Bartow office by phone at 863-534-3530.
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