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Klobuchar Named to Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Conference Committee

Senator's work earns her first conference committee assignment to finalize historic legislation

April 30, 2008

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) announced late last night that U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar has been named to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Conference Committee.  Klobuchar will be one of seven Senators responsible for reconciling the historic Senate and House CPSC bills that passed earlier this year.  This is Klobuchar’s first conference committee assignment and is also the first formal Commerce conference committee of the 110th Congress.

“It’s important that we get this bill done quickly and that we maintain the strong standards passed in the Senate bill,” said Klobuchar.  “This is an important step to protect the safety of our children and it is long past time to get these toxic toys off our shores and out of our stores. This bill finally makes it criminal to sell recalled products, bans lead in children’s products, and I hope will give parents some peace that the toys in their children’s hands are safe.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission Reform Act passed the Senate by a vote of 79-13 early in March.  The bill is the first overhaul of the CPSC in over 15 years.

Klobuchar will fight to protect three safety provisions she authored in the Senate passed version. Those provisions would: 

• Ban lead in children’s products - the first time the federal government has adopted such a mandatory lead standard;
• Require that “batch numbers’’ be printed directly on toys and their packaging so parents can identify a toy after it has been recalled and remove it from their homes;
• And ban the sale of recalled toys, a practice that is not now prohibited.

Klobuchar introduced these measures last year following millions of recalls of toxic, lead-tainted toys, and the death of Jarnell Brown, a four-year-old boy from Minnesota who died after swallowing a toy charm made almost entirely of lead.

Klobuchar was also successful in passing an amendment with Senator Robert Menendez (D-NJ) to ban industry-paid travel by CPSC commissioners and employees. Klobuchar and Menendez authored the amendment following press reports last year that CPSC staff had taken dozens of trips worth thousands of dollars paid for by industries with business before the Commission. The amendment passed by a vote of 96-0.

Chairmen Daniel Inouye (D-HI) and Mark Pryor (D-AR), as well as Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA); Ted Stevens (R-AK); Kay Bailey Hutchinson (R-TX); and John Sununu (R-NH) will also serve with Klobuchar on the conference committee.

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