[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 168 (Thursday, November 1, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Page S13687]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Ms. SNOWE:
  S. 2282. A bill to increase the number of full-time personnel of the 
Consumer Product Safety Commission assigned to duty stations at United 
States ports of entry or to inspect overseas production facilities, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation.
  Ms. SNOWE. Mr. President, today I am introducing a bill to increase 
the number of full-time personnel of the Consumer Product U.S. Safety 
Commission assigned to duty stations at U.S. ports of entry or to 
inspect overseas production facilities to ensure that the Consumer 
Product Safety Commission has the personnel necessary to adequately 
address the growing problem of import safety. This bill would more than 
triple the current number of commission staff assigned to U.S. ports of 
entry, by requiring that no less than 50 full-time import inspectors be 
in place at the beginning of the next fiscal year. Additionally, it 
would expressly authorize the CPSC to send such inspectors to examine 
the operations at overseas factories which manufacture consumer 
products destined for the U.S.
  This legislation is critically necessary, given that an ever-
increasing number of the consumer products now sold on our shelves are 
manufactured in countries with appalling safety and quality control 
standards, such as China. Sine the year 2000, foreign imports to the 
U.S. have increased 67 percent by value, with imports from China nearly 
tripling, growing from $100 billion in 2000 to $288 billion last year. 
Almost 20 percent of consumer products sold in the U.S. today were made 
in China. Particularly troubling is that Chinese manufacturers have 
cornered the U.S. market on toys, with over 80 percent of all toys sold 
in the U.S. coming from China. Since March 2007, over 8 million pieces 
of these Chinese-made toys have been recalled due to lead contamination 
alone.
  Outrageously, the number of CPSC personnel dedicated to monitoring 
import compliance with U.S. health and safety requirements has been 
slashed along with other Commission resources during the very period in 
which trade liberalization has allowed foreign producers greater access 
to our markets. With over 60 percent of CPSC staff having been cut over 
the past 27 years--from almost 1,000 employees in 1980 to a record low 
of 420 employees in 2007--there remain only 15 full-time Commission 
personnel assigned to inspect imports at U.S. ports. According to a 
September 2, 2007, New York Times article, this handful of import 
inspectors ``are hard pressed to find dangerous cargo before it enters 
the country; instead, they rely on other Federal agents, who mostly act 
as trademark enforcers.'' Similarly unacceptable is the fact that the 
CPSC lacks the staff to send a single inspector to the foreign 
factories making the goods that we put on our kitchen counters and in 
the hands of our children.
  These facts unquestionably reveal, as a Consumers Union official told 
the Senate Committee on Finance earlier this month, that the CPSC has 
not kept up with the globalization of the marketplace. That is why I 
have proposed this bill, which would rapidly shore-up the commission's 
import inspection staff, who are so critical to protecting us from 
dangerous foreign products. I urge my colleagues to support this 
common-sense solution to an urgent problem.
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