[Congressional Record Volume 157, Number 120 (Tuesday, August 2, 2011)]
[Senate]
[Page S5236]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                               H.R. 2715

  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. Mr. President, I rise to engage in a colloquy with 
my colleagues, Senators Durbin and Pryor, over the passage of H.R. 
2715, a bill that passed on the House suspension calendar by a vote of 
421-2 and the Senate by unanimous consent. Due to the fact that this 
bill bypassed regular order and failed to receive consideration in the 
Commerce Committee, I believe it is important to explain our intent in 
passing this bill.
  Mr. DURBIN. I am frustrated that the Consumer Product Safety 
Commission has taken too long to promulgate rules required by the 
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, CPSIA, including the rules on 
third-party testing obligations and the component part testing rule. I 
did not oppose H.R. 2715, because it does not delay or impede the 
Commission's ability to implement those rules--although it may place 
some increased costs on the Commission due to actions required as a 
result of new CPSC mandates and authorities--and I urge the Commission 
to complete its work expeditiously.
  Mr. ROCKEFELLER. I share the Senator's concerns about the CPSC's 
delay in promulgating its regulations in accordance with the mandates 
of CPSIA. While I sympathize with the CPSC over its resource 
constraints, the Commission must accelerate its efforts and complete 
the important regulations required under CPSIA. The provisions in 
section 2 of H.R. 2715 were not intended to delay or stop the 
Commission's current rulemaking under section 102 (d)(2) of the 
Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act to implement the critical 
provision related to the third-party testing of children's products. I 
fully expect the Commission to go forward with these important 
rulemakings with no disruption from the passage of this bill.
  Given the limited resources of the Commission and recognizing the 
length of time it has taken to implement the provisions of the Consumer 
Product Safety Improvement Act, it is intended that most of H.R. 2715's 
new mandates on the CPSC are not rulemakings. Some of the new 
authority, such as the functional purpose exemption and the authority 
to restrict the scope of the used products exemption, are subject to a 
notice and hearing requirement, but not to a rulemaking. Others, such 
as the creation of a new public registry for small batch manufacturers, 
can be implemented without notice and comment or even a hearing. As 
such, the Commission should act to effectuate the new mandates of this 
bill in a most expeditious manner.
  Mr. PRYOR. I also share the Senator's view that nothing in H.R. 2715 
is intended to delay the Commission's rulemaking with respect to third 
party testing and believe that Commission should conclude its testing 
rulemakings in the next 2 months. I supported H.R. 2715 because it made 
minor modifications to an important consumer product safety law and 
supported implementation of important aspect of the Consumer Product 
Safety Improvement Act such as the consumer product database. This bill 
will require the CPSC to extend the deadline for posting reports on 
defective products by 5 days if a business asserts that the information 
in the report is not accurate. However, this change does not alter the 
fact that the Commission still must post the report in the database 
after those 5 days even if it is still reviewing the merits of the 
complaint.

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