[Senate Report 117-62]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 226
117th Congress         }                        {              Report
                                 SENATE 
 2d Session            }                        {              117-62
_______________________________________________________________________



                                                                                            
                             SAFE CRIBS ACT

                               __________

                              R E P O R T

                                 of the

           COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION

                                   on

                                S. 1259
		
		
		[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
		

                February 1, 2022.--Ordered to be printed
                
                	       __________
                	       
                	       
                   U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE    

29-010			  WASHINGTON : 2022                   
                	       
                
                
                
       SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
                    one hundred seventeenth congress
                             second session




                   MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Chair
AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota             ROGER WICKER, Mississippi
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut      JOHN THUNE, South Dakota
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii                 ROY BLUNT, Missouri
EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts         TED CRUZ, Texas
GARY PETERS, Michigan                DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             JERRY MORAN, Kansas
TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois            DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska
JON TESTER, Montana                  MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee
KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona              TODD YOUNG, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  MIKE LEE, Utah
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia

RAPHAEL WARNOCK, Georgia             RICK SCOTT, Florida
                                     CYNTHIA LUMMIS, Wyoming
                 Melissa Porter, Acting Staff Director
                  John Keast, Minority Staff Director
                  
                  
                  
                  
 
                                                       Calendar No. 226
117th Congress         }                        {              Report
                                 SENATE 
 2d Session            }                        {              117-62

======================================================================




                             SAFE CRIBS ACT
                                _______
                                

                February 1, 2022.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

      Ms. Cantwell, from the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
                Transportation, submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                         [To accompany S. 1259]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, to 
which was referred the bill (S. 1259) to provide that crib 
bumpers shall be considered banned hazardous products under 
section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act, and for other 
purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon 
without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                          PURPOSE OF THE BILL

    The purpose of S. 1259 is to make it unlawful to 
manufacture, sell, or otherwise distribute crib bumpers because 
they present an unreasonable risk of injury, and no feasible 
consumer product safety standard could adequately protect the 
public from the unreasonable risk of injury associated with 
these dangerous products. The bill provides that crib bumpers 
are considered banned hazardous products under section 8 of the 
Consumer Product Safety Act.\1\ The bill applies to padded crib 
bumpers, supported and unsupported vinyl bumper guards, 
vertical crib slat covers, and any material that is intended to 
cover the sides of a crib to prevent injury. The bill does not 
apply to non-padded mesh crib liners.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Public Law 92-573, 86 Stat. 1207 (1972) (codified as amended at 
15 U.S.C. 2051-2089).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                          BACKGROUND AND NEEDS

    Crib bumpers are infant bedding accessories that attach to 
the interior perimeter of a crib and serve as a barrier between 
the infant and the sides of the crib.\2\ Although product 
designs may vary, the most common type of crib bumper consists 
of one or more rectangular fabric panels, constructed of cotton 
or polyester, with filling material for padding and with 
fasteners to attach to a crib.\3\ Crib bumpers are marketed to 
parents and caregivers as products that improve the visual 
appeal of a baby's sleeping area while preventing babies from 
bumping their heads or getting their arms or legs caught in the 
rails of a crib. However, existing research and evidence 
demonstrate that crib bumpers pose an unreasonable risk to the 
safety of infants and babies.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \2\U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Proposed Rule: Safety 
Standard for Crib Bumpers/Liners under the Danny Keysar Child Product 
Safety Notification Act, March 3, 2020 (https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-
public/RCA%20-%20Proposed%20Rule%20-%20Safety%20Standard
%20for%20Crib%20Bumpers-
Liners%20under%20the%20Danny%20Keysar%20Child%20Product
%20Safety%20Notification%20Act.pdf?_JyBRdLJyRf3HSQF1QWFnI9IdEeNMz1c).
    \3\Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Journal of Pediatrics published research in 2016 
concluding that ``none of the proposed benefits outweigh well-
established evidence that crib bumpers can cause deaths and 
serious injuries.''\4\ The purpose of this study was ``to 
identify the extent to which clutter in the crib is the cause 
of infant deaths based on new information and an update of the 
study of Thach et al and provide a new analysis of nonfatal 
bumper-related incidents to document the extent of the problem 
more fully.''\5\ The authors concluded:
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \4\NJ Scheers et al., ``Crib Bumpers Continue to Cause Infant 
Deaths: A Need for a New Preventive Approach,'' The Journal of 
Pediatrics, vol. 169 (February 2016), p. 93-97.E1 (https://doi.org/
10.1016/j.jpeds.2015.10.050).
    \5\Ibid.

Our analysis of 48 deaths found that most of the deaths were caused by 
the bumper alone and would have been prevented if a bumper had not been 
in the crib. Although the cribs were not free of other objects (e.g., 
comforters, blankets, pillows, toys), this clutter was not in contact 
with or near the infants' nose and mouth in approximately 67% of the 
deaths.\6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\Ibid.

    According to an updated study published in the May 2021 
issue of Pediatrics, the official journal of the American 
Academy of Pediatrics, there were 4,929 sudden unexplained 
infant deaths (SUID) in the United States between 2011 and 
2017.\7\ Of those, 72 percent of the deaths occurred in an 
unsafe sleep environment.\8\ Furthermore, approximately 75 
percent of infant deaths due to possible suffocation resulted 
from airway obstruction attributed to soft bedding.\9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\Sharyn E. Parks et al., ``Explaining Sudden Unexpected Infant 
Deaths, 2011-2017,'' Pediatrics, May 2021 (https://
pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/147/5/e2020035873).
    \8\Ibid.
    \9\Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) identified 
113 fatal incidents associated with crib bumpers (i.e., cases 
in which a crib bumper was present in the sleep environment) 
reported to have occurred from January 1, 1990, through March 
31, 2019.\10\ According to the CPSC, a number of reports 
indicated that, in addition to a crib bumper being present, the 
sleeping environment contained multiple additional items, such 
as pillows, blankets, and stuffed dolls--all of which elevate 
the risk of infants dying by asphyxia, suffocation, or 
SUID.\11\ Consequently, the CPSC determined that in many of 
these incidents, it was unclear what role, if any, the crib 
bumper played in the death of the child.\12\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, Proposed Rule: Safety 
Standard for Crib Bumpers/Liners under the Danny Keysar Child Product 
Safety Notification Act, March 3, 2020 (https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-
public/RCA%20-%20Proposed%20Rule%20-%20Safety%20Standard
%20for%20Crib%20Bumpers-
Liners%20under%20the%20Danny%20Keysar%20Child%20Product
%20Safety%20Notification%20Act.pdf?_JyBRdLJyRf3HSQF1QWFnI9IdEeNMz1c).
    \11\Ibid.
    \12\Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    The CPSC identified 83 non-incidental reported fatalities 
out of the 113 fatal incidents and organized the incidents by 
hazard scenarios, making the following determinations: in 44 
reported fatalities, the child was found wedged or entrapped 
against the bumper; in 27 reported fatalities, the child was 
reportedly in contact with, but not entrapped or wedged 
against, the crib bumper; in 7 reported fatalities, the child 
was found in contact with a crib bumper but the fatality report 
lacked detail to confirm if the child was killed as a result of 
being entrapped or wedged against the bumper (the report often 
describes the child being found with his or her face between 
the mattress and the crib bumper); and in 5 of the reported 
fatalities, the child was in contact with a crib bumper outside 
a crib.\13\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \13\Ibid.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Five consumer-level recalls were conducted during that 
period to mitigate against risks of entanglement, entrapment, 
suffocation, and choking from loose threads (e.g., unraveling 
ties, breaking threads and seams) from the crib bumper.\14\ The 
CPSC also granted a petition for a rulemaking to distinguish 
hazardous pillow-like crib bumpers from nonhazardous 
traditional crib bumpers in 2013.\15\ To date, however, the 
CPSC has failed to promulgate a crib bumper rule under its 
existing authorities, including sections 7 and 9 of the 
Consumer Product Safety Act.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \14\Ibid.
    \15\Consumer Product Safety Commission, Docket No. CPSC-2019-0033, 
CPSC Forum on Crib Bumpers, Federal Register, vol. 84, no. 230, 
November 29, 2019 (https://www.govinfo.gov/
content/pkg/FR-2019-11-29/pdf/2019-25890.pdf).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Since 2007, the American Academy of Pediatrics has 
recommended that parents and caregivers avoid crib bumpers.\16\ 
The National Institutes of Health also advises against the use 
of crib bumpers,\17\ and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control 
and Prevention warn parents and caregivers to keep crib bumpers 
out of a baby's sleep area because of the risks associated with 
SUID.\18\ Despite this clear guidance, padded crib bumpers 
remain widely sold and may even be bundled as part of infant 
bedding sets.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \16\Allison Bond, ``Crib Bumpers in the Night: a Hazard to 
Infants,'' AAP News, January 2008 (https://www.aappublications.org/
content/29/1/28.2).
    \17\Yvonne T. Maddox, ``NIH Statement on the New Crib Safety 
Standards,'' National Institutes of Health, June 27, 2011 (www.nih.gov/
news-events/news-releases/nih-statement-new-crib-safety-standards).
    \18\Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ``Sudden Unexpected 
Infant Death and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Parents and 
Caregivers,'' September 30, 2020 (https://www.cdc.gov/sids/Parents-
Caregivers.htm).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    A 2020 Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 
survey regarding public opinion on the sale of crib bumpers 
found that many consumers appear to interpret the commercial 
availability of crib bumpers as evidence that the product is 
safe for infants and babies.\19\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \19\Andrea Gielen and Joshua Sharfstein, ``Public Opinion on the 
Sale of Crib Bumpers,'' JAMA Network Open, June 18, 2020 (https://
jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2767257).
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    Current evidence does not indicate that non-padded mesh 
crib liners pose an equivalent danger as crib bumpers, and such 
products, to date, have not been found to cause deaths and 
serious injuries in infants and babies. Accordingly, S. 1259 
does not address non-padded mesh crib liner products.

                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    S. 1259 was introduced on April 20, 2021, by Senator 
Duckworth (for herself and Senators Portman and Blumenthal) and 
was referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
Transportation of the Senate. On April 28, 2021, the Committee 
met in open Executive Session and, by voice vote, ordered S. 
1259 reported favorably without amendment.
    In the 116th Congress, the U.S. House of Representatives 
agreed to a motion to suspend the rules and pass H.R. 3172, 
Safe Sleep for Babies Act of 2019, as amended, by voice vote on 
December 16, 2019. Section 3 (banning crib bumpers) of H.R. 
3172, as amended and passed by the U.S. House of 
Representatives, contained identical language to S. 1259.

                            ESTIMATED COSTS

    In accordance with paragraph 11(a) of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate and section 403 of the 
Congressional Budget Act of 1974, the Committee provides the 
following cost estimate, prepared by the Congressional Budget 
Office:

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                     Washington, DC, June 14, 2021.
Hon. Maria Cantwell,
Chairwoman, Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Madam Chairwoman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 1259, the Safe Cribs 
Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Ryan 
Greenfield.
            Sincerely,
                                         Phillip L. Swagel,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.

    	[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
    

    S. 1259 would ban the manufacture or sale of crib bumpers 
(defined as padded material that surrounds the slats of the 
crib). Based on information provided by the Consumer Safety 
Product Commission and the cost of similar activities, CBO 
estimates that staff costs associated with enforcing the ban 
would total less than $500,000 over the 2021-2026 period; any 
spending would be subject to the availability of appropriated 
funds.
    The bill would impose a private-sector mandate as defined 
in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA) by prohibiting the 
sale of crib bumpers. The cost of the mandate would include the 
value of foregone income from the sales of the prohibited 
products. Several state and local jurisdictions currently 
prohibit the sale of crib bumpers. Based on available 
information about the price of crib bumpers and the extent of 
their use, CBO estimates that the cost of the mandate would 
fall below the annual threshold for private-sector mandates 
established in UMRA ($170 million in 2021, adjusted annually 
for inflation).
    S. 1259 contains no intergovernmental mandates as defined 
in UMRA.
    The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Ryan 
Greenfield (for federal costs) and Andrew Laughlin (for 
mandates). The estimate was reviewed by Leo Lex, Deputy 
Director of Budget Analysis.

                      REGULATORY IMPACT STATEMENT

    Because S. 1259 does not create any new programs, the 
legislation will have no additional regulatory impact, and will 
result in no additional reporting requirements. The legislation 
will have no further effect on the number or types of 
individuals and businesses regulated, the economic impact of 
such regulation, the personal privacy of affected individuals, 
or the paperwork required from such individuals and businesses.

                   CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

    In compliance with paragraph 4(b) of rule XLIV of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee provides that no 
provisions contained in the bill, as reported, meet the 
definition of congressionally directed spending items under the 
rule.

                      SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1. Short title

    This section would provide that the bill may be cited as 
the ``Safe Cribs Act''.

Section 2. Banning of crib bumpers

    Paragraph (a) establishes that not later than 180 days 
after the date of enactment, crib bumpers, regardless of the 
date of manufacture, shall be considered a banned hazardous 
product under section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act.
    Paragraph (b) defines the term ``crib bumper'' to exclude 
non-padded, mesh crib liners and to include padded crib 
bumpers; supported and unsupported vinyl bumper guards; 
vertical crib slat covers; and any material that is intended to 
cover the sides of a crib to prevent injury to any crib 
occupant from impacts against the side of a crib or to prevent 
partial or complete access to any openings in the sides of a 
crib to prevent a crib occupant from getting any body part 
entrapped in any opening.

                        CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

    In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the 
Standing Rules of the Senate, the Committee states that the 
bill as reported would make no change to existing law.

                                  [all]