[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 153 (Thursday, December 17, 1998)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E2339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                         CPSC ON THE FAST TRACK

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. EDWARD J. MARKEY

                            of massachusetts

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, December 17, 1998

  Mr. MARKEY. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased to call to the attention of my 
colleagues the outstanding work being done by the U.S. Consumer Product 
Safety Commission (CPSC). The Commission has put into effect an 
innovative program, under which it works cooperatively with industry to 
get hazardous products off store shelves within days, instead of the 
weeks and months that it traditionally takes to negotiate a recall. 
Everyone wins under this new system--especially the consumer, who is 
protected from possible injury,
  This Fast-Track Product Recall Program was recently honored with a 
1998 Innovations in American Government Award. The CPSC was one of 
three federal government winners of the $100,000 award this year. These 
awards are funded by the Ford Foundation, and administered by the John 
F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University in partnership 
with the Council for Excellence in Government.
  The CPSC's award-winning program was highlighted in the December 1998 
edition of Government Executive magazine, and I would like to submit 
this article for the Record.

                 [From Government Executive, Dec. 1998]

    A Fast Track to Consumer Product Safety--Quick Recall of Faulty 
                        Products Serves Everyone


    Fast-Track Product Recall Program U.S. Consumer Product Safety 
                               Commission

       When a consumer product could hurt or even kill somebody, 
     the traditional regulatory response is understandable: to 
     find fault and then decide how to punish the manufacturer. 
     But there's a new attitude at the Consumer Product Safety 
     Commission--charged with monitoring consumer product safety 
     nationwide: When a product has the potential to hurt or even 
     kill somebody, the preferred course is to work with the 
     manufacturer to get that product off the market fast. That is 
     the aim of the Fast-Track Product Recall Program, launched as 
     a six-month pilot in July 1995.
       With 21,400 deaths and 29 million injuries annually due to 
     faulty consumer products, the issue of unsafe products is not 
     a small one. And the size of the problem only compounded the 
     frustration of CPSC staff over how long it traditionally took 
     to implement a recall--time delays exacerbated by the 
     frequently adversarial nature of the process.
       And so staff in the Commission's Office of Compliance 
     decided to try a new tack. In discussions with companies, 
     staff learned two things: The recall process itself--which 
     frequently called for lengthy testing and investigations--
     sometimes got in the way of rapid recall. More serious, 
     though, was that in initiating a recall, the Commission would 
     in every case make a ``preliminary determination'' of a 
     product defect in order to justify the recall. Because such 
     ``PDs,'' as they were called, implied guilt, companies afraid 
     of liability suits frequently fought them as a matter of 
     course. That, too, only served to drag out the process.
       To avoid all that, the Commission and manufacturers 
     negotiated a trade. If companies would volunteer for fast-
     track, the Commission would sidestep much of the process 
     involved in initiating a recall, including the preliminary 
     determination.
       The new avenue for recalls caught on quickly. Since the 
     program was launched (it became permanent in March 1997), 
     nearly half of all recalls are fast-tracked. In 1996, 103 
     fast-track recalls were initiated within an average of 10 
     days; in 1997, 105 recalls were initiated within an average 
     of 17 days. While a week may seem like a long time for some 
     defective product to stay on the shelves, it is a vast 
     improvement over the weeks or months that it takes to 
     initiate a recall under the traditional system.
       Not only is the new system faster, it also appears to be 
     more effective. The percentage of products returned by 
     consumers for repair or replacement has averaged over 60 
     percent for fast-track, compared with 30 percent under the 
     traditional process. And the new system is very cost-
     effective. Although nearly half of all recalls are now fast-
     tracked, they account for only 10 percent of the Commission's 
     $16.5 million compliance budget.