[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 130 (Wednesday, September 5, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S11088-S11090]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRADE AND CONSUMER SAFETY

  Mr. DORGAN. If I might, in a separate part of the Record, I wish to 
talk about something that showed up in the newspapers this morning as 
well. I wish to tell you first--this was not in the papers this 
morning--about something that was a while back. I wish to tell you 
about a 4-year-old boy named Jarnell Brown. Jarnell Brown was from 
Minnesota. Jarnell is now dead. Jarnell is dead because he was visiting 
a friend's house, and he swallowed a small heart-shaped charm that came 
on a bracelet that came with a pair of Reebok tennis shoes. It turns 
out that little charm, that little jewelry charm contained 99 percent 
lead, and it killed Jarnell Brown. It was 99 percent lead.
  It came from China, which probably should not surprise us. It 
suggests, once again, in this global economy--in which we decide we are 
going to produce elsewhere and ship here, after we spent a century 
developing standards to protect workers, protect consumers, the kinds 
of things Americans basically expect to be protected for and from--we 
decide we are going to outsource all that so we will have all these 
products made elsewhere and shipped into our country.
  So we get tennis shoes, and we get a charm bracelet, and we get a 
heart attached to the end of the bracelet that is 99 percent lead, and 
the young boy accidentally swallows that little heart and dies from 
lead poisoning.
  Now, let me talk a bit about this morning's news. Mattel is 
announcing this morning a product recall. They are recalling 848,000 
Chinese-made Barbie and Fisher-Price toys that have excessive amounts 
of lead. Toys are being pulled from store shelves, including Barbie 
kitchen and furniture items, Fisher-Price train toys, and Bongo Band 
drums.
  These are innocent enough looking products. But the surface paint on 
these products contains excessive levels of lead, prohibited under our 
Federal laws because of the serious threat they pose to human health, 
particularly the health of young children.
  I do not suggest that Mattel has any response this morning other than 
being heartsick and heartbroken over this situation. Mattel is a good 
company. But what has happened to Mattel has happened to many other 
companies. They outsource production and then ship the product into 
this country, and there is no determination of whether those products 
are produced under the same conditions we would require in this 
country.
  We only inspect 1 percent of the products that come into this 
country. So whether it is food or toys or jewelry or other things we 
require certain kinds of standards with respect to its production here, 
yet there are no such standards required with respect to production 
elsewhere. Oh, I know the people who outsource these contracts will 
say: Well, we require this and that of them. But there is no 
enforcement, and everyone knows that.
  Let me describe a few of the circumstances. I talk about the lead 
paint. As we know, lead paint is used because it is bright, durable, 
flexible, fast drying, and, above all, it is cheap. So the Chinese, we 
now know from products that are being pulled from the shelves, have 
used lead paint. They mass produce lead paint and coloring agents such 
as lead chromate that are generally cheaper than other pigments, so we 
are now seeing the effect of that on store shelves.
  This poor 4-year-old boy felt the effect in the most extreme way. He 
died.
  It is not just China, and it is not just toys. FDA inspectors 
recently intercepted shipments of black pepper with salmonella from 
India, intercepted crab meat from Mexico too filthy to eat, and produce 
from the Dominican Republic was stopped 813 times last year for 
containing traces of illegal pesticides--this is a country with whom we 
just signed a trade agreement.
  Now let me describe--even as we have galloped globally to outsource 
production but not to develop and maintain the protections for the 
American consumers on the products coming in--the Food and Drug 
Administration. Under the Bush administration, the FDA's safety mission 
I think has been substantially reduced. In fact, the FDA is planning to 
close 7 of its 13 drug safety labs, and it would close or consolidate a 
number of its 20 regional offices.
  The trend has been to inspect fewer, not more, imports into this 
country under the administration. The FDA tests, we are told, about 1 
percent of imported food. Last year, the FDA took 50 percent fewer 
samples for testing from imported seafood than it did in the year 
previous.
  The issue is not just China, but China has been in the news more than 
any other country. Let me describe the circumstance of China because 
that has become the most notorious offshore platform. Toys, dolls, 
games, for all of these products China ranks as our No. 1 source of 
imports; fish, seafood, China is No. 1. Tires, China is No. 1; also for 
pet food, and toothpaste; and the list goes on. In fact, we have such a 
giant trade deficit with China--this chart shows what is happening with 
our trade relationship with China, which I think demonstrates an 
incompetence that is almost breathtaking for this country, an 
incompetence with respect to the negotiating of trade agreements and an 
incompetence with respect to enforcing trade agreements. But aside from 
that, I describe a circumstance here, and we are seeing it now every 
day in the newspapers, of the danger to U.S. consumers.

  Well, pet food--how many Americans had their pets die as a result of 
contaminated pet food coming into this country? It was discovered that 
animal food, pet food from China contained substances that are 
dangerous to pets. Sixty million packages of pet food under 150 brands 
were recalled after it was found that ingredients in pet food could be 
dangerous to pets.
  Seafood--the U.S. FDA banned the import of five types of farm-raised 
fish and shrimp from China after they were found to contain unsafe 
drugs, some of which cause cancer.
  Now, I am telling you what they have found and banned, and I am 
telling you they have only inspected 1 percent.
  Toothpaste, Chinese-made toothpaste sold in dollar stores--the FDA 
has warned consumers to throw out any toothpaste made in China. In 
fact, they not only found some of the toothpaste was contaminated with 
a dangerous ingredient, they found other toothpaste

[[Page S11089]]

that was contaminated with the ingredient and did not list the 
ingredient on the toothpaste box.
  Toys and jewelry--I mentioned Mattel. There are others. Mattel has 
had three very substantial recalls of Chinese-made toys in the last 5 
months. Again, my guess is the executives of that company are heartsick 
about what is happening. But it is a result of exporting manufacturing 
and not having the protections with respect to the conditions under 
which that product is manufactured--the protections for American 
consumers that we have always come to expect.
  I did not mention with respect to toys, the RC2 Corporation recalled 
1.5 million of these little toys, Thomas & Friends from its Wooden 
Railway product line, made by Hansheng Wood Products Factory in China 
using lead paint.
  According to a spot check recently, it was announced 20 percent of 
Chinese-made jewelry contains potentially poisonous chemicals, 
including lead.
  Automobile tires--a tire importer called Foreign Tire Sales recalled 
255,000 Chinese-made tires in August because they lacked a safety 
feature that prevents tread separation.
  I do not need to go through much more but only to say this: These are 
real serious issues. I started by talking about a young 4-year-old boy 
named Jarnell Brown. He died. There are real consequences to these 
issues. We spent a century developing standards in this country to 
protect workers, to protect consumers, and we built something very 
special and very important in this country.
  Now, under a galloping global economy, in which the rules have not 
kept pace, we are told: Well--do you know what?--we are going to 
outsource manufacturing because we can pay people 30 cents an hour in 
sweatshops somewhere around the world, and we can have it manufactured 
for less money.
  Well, if that cheap product is unsafe for your health, if that 
product--whether it is food or vegetables or toys or jewelry--if that 
product is harmful to your health, we need to rethink the standards by 
which we engage in this global economy. Yes, it is a global economy, 
and I do not suggest we are going to retreat from the global economy. I 
do suggest this: We should participate in the global economy on our 
terms. We should describe what kind of participation we will have with 
respect to this economy in a way that is fair to our workers, that 
earns a decent wage in this country, and in a way that protects our 
consumers for whom we have established certain consumer protections.
  I know someone will say that is regulation. Yes, it is regulation. I 
spoke on the floor of the Senate one day, when I held up a package of 
beef. I asked consent to do that. You have to have consent to hold up a 
package of beef on the floor of the Senate because it is an object to 
show. I said: I do not think anybody can tell me where this beef came 
from. I know they could not because it is not labeled.
  So then I read the description of what the investigator found, the 
inspector found when he went to a plant in Hermosillo, Mexico, and 
inspected a plant that was processing beef, slaughtering cattle, 
processing beef and shipping it to the United States. He found 
carcasses hanging under a hot roof, with flies and feces all over the 
carcasses. He described horrendous things that I read on the floor of 
the Senate and led me to ask: Does anybody want to buy beef from that 
circumstance?
  Well, guess what. It was the only time that plant had ever been 
inspected--the only time. As a result, the plant lost its license. It 
then was sold, then changed its name, and was relicensed. It is now 
selling beef to the United States and has never again been inspected.
  I use that only to say it is exactly the same coin--the flip side of 
the same coin, of lead paint coming in a heart-shaped toy from China 
that a young child swallows and, as a result, dies.
  I have introduced legislation dealing with the other side of this as 
well with respect to workers' rights, dealing with sweatshop labor and 
conditions under which people are working in sweatshops in other parts 
of the world; working in sweatshops and, in some cases, producing these 
kinds of products. Why? Because it is cheap. Cheap labor, cheap 
products. Use lead; it is cheap. The problem is it is harmful to your 
health and especially harmful to children. The legislation I have 
introduced dealing with the issue of sweatshops and being fair to 
American workers would ban the product of sweatshop labor coming into 
this country. That bill, which is S. 367, has 12 bipartisan cosponsors.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to add Senator Clinton today 
as a cosponsor to that piece of legislation.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, if we look at these issues in the context 
not of trying to destroy the advantages of a global economy but in the 
context of trying to make certain the protections we have developed for 
our country--protections that have allowed us to create a wonderful 
place in which to work and consume--if we can, with respect to our 
participation in the global economy, raise standards rather than lower 
ours--if we can do that, then we will have done something significant. 
But that is not what has been happening. What has been happening in 
this country is a race to the bottom, and a rush to embrace the refrain 
by some who want to produce where it is cheap and sell here and run 
their income through the Cayman Islands to avoid paying taxes, and they 
say, You know, we don't want any more regulations. I understand that. 
They want to avoid regulations. They want to avoid paying a decent 
wage. They want to go to offshore manufacturing platforms some place 
and produce little bracelets with little hearts that are made with 99 
percent lead to ship into this country. That doesn't work. It won't 
work anymore. Somehow, as a country, we have to find a way to stop it.
  My colleague Senator Durbin has a piece of legislation on the safety 
of food imports, which I am working on with him. I have also described 
the sweatshop labor bill I have introduced, and it is a bipartisan 
bill, and my hope is we can move and begin to address these issues.
  I know there are others who are going to want to speak in morning 
business, and as soon as they come I will discontinue mine, but I do 
want to make a couple of other points about this country's economy.
  When one looks at the last century or so, we created a place that is 
pretty unusual on this Earth and we did that because we cared about 
American workers, and we created a manufacturing base that was the 
strongest in the world. You cannot long remain a world economic power 
without a first-rate manufacturing base, and we are now seeing that 
some don't care about a manufacturing base. Let's outsource to wherever 
we can find the cheapest labor. Let's outsource to not only where we 
can find the cheapest labor, but also where we can combine that with 
the lack of regulations. We can allow that to exist in circumstances 
where those who produce and pump chemicals into the air, chemicals into 
the water. Well, the problem with that is you are not only confronted 
with what is called ``the China price,'' the China price with respect 
to goods--you have to compete with the China price--you also now 
understand the term ``the China haze,'' because we are breathing 
pollutants that come from China. We all live in the same fishbowl. 
Things we long ago abandoned in this country because we understand it 
causes cancer, causes terrible danger to human health, we are now 
breathing again in this country because of a phenomenon called the 
China haze.
  I know I have described China at some length today. It is not only 
China we need to be concerned about with respect to what are fair rules 
and fair requirements with respect to our participation in the global 
economy. But I don't think we should any longer ignore the consequences 
about what we read in the paper this morning: the recall of hundreds of 
thousands of additional toys that are shipped into this country to be 
sold on store shelves and to be played with by American children when, 
in fact, they contain amounts of lead that are harmful or dangerous to 
our children. We can't ignore that.
  I congratulate the companies that are recalling those products, but 
we shouldn't have had a reason to recall them in the first place. They 
should have been produced under conditions that we would have known in 
this country to be safe, that represent the

[[Page S11090]]

standards we long ago have required in this country. That has not been 
the case, and I think that because it is not the case, it raises a 
great many questions. I also, as I indicated earlier, believe at the 
very time we are seeing all of these products coming into this country 
that can cause serious problems for human health, at the very time we 
see that, to see this administration decide to retract on those issues 
and begin to actually inspect fewer rather than more products, at a 
time when we are inspecting only 1 percent of all of that which comes 
in, I think that is a serious step in exactly the wrong direction.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor and make a point of order that a 
quorum is not present.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. SCHUMER. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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