BedTimes Home

BedTimes, Front Matter, September 2008

Bush signs major CPSC overhaul
Efforts of mattress industry improved bill, ISPA says

President Bush has signed a law to reform the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, which, among other duties, oversees the cigarette-ignition and open-flame mattress standards.

Congress passed the legislation by overwhelming votes: 89-3 in the Senate and 424-1 in the House.
The legislation—giving new powers to the agency and mandating new requirements for businesses—represents perhaps the largest overhaul of the CPSC since its creation in 1972.

“Thanks to the efforts of the International Sleep Products Association, its members and our colleagues at other trade associations, we were able to significantly alter the legislation to limit its impact on the mattress industry,” says Chris Hudgins, ISPA vice president of government relations.

Hudgins says ISPA members supplemented ISPA staff visits to the Hill by sending more than 100 letters to members of Congress.

“While we have made significant progress, there is still much to be done,” he says. “Under the new law, the CPSC will be required to undertake many rulemakings to implement the legislation. ISPA and its members will need to be involved in this process and will be called upon to provide comments and data to the CPSC to avoid overly burdensome regulation.”

Major provisions of the legislation include:

• The CPSC may not expand or contract the pre-emptive effect of product safety rules, such as mattress flammability standards.
• A shortened timeframe for companies to respond to the CPSC regarding information that may be disclosed publicly.
• A new public CPSC database that will catalog consumer and third-party safety claims made against products.
• An increase in potential civil penalties from less than $2 million to $15 million.
• New authority for state attorneys general to enforce product safety standards.
• Whistleblower protections for employees who allege a product safety violation.
• A new definition for children’s products designating them as consumer products “designed or intended” for children 12 or younger.
• New limits for lead contained in children’s products, including testing and certification requirements.

Hudgins points to a number of successes that the mattress industry and others can claim in regards to the final reform bill, including the fact that they were able to limit efforts to weaken the pre-emptive effect of safety standards, such as those for mattress flammability.

“We were able to beat back efforts to heavily dilute the pre-emptive effect of federal safety standards that could have allowed states to implement conflicting and redundant safety requirements,” he says.

The mattress industry and others were able to encourage substantial changes to early versions of the House and Senate bills, including:

• Limiting efforts to allow the CPSC to disclose confidential information.
• Requiring company review, comment and verification of claims included in the public database.
• Reducing the proposed penalty increase from $100 million to $15 million.
• Incorporating new guidelines that the CPSC must assess in levying penalties. The CPSC must consider certain factors, including the impact on small businesses, when determining penalties.
• Limiting new powers for state attorneys general, as well as adding a provision requiring notification prior to the filing of a suit and allowing the CPSC to intervene in cases.
• Removing “bounty” that could be awarded to whistleblowers. An early provision would have allowed whistleblowers to receive a percentage of the penalty assessed against a company, creating a large economic incentive to bring claims against an employer.

Still, Hudgins says, the reform legislation holds potential threats to the mattress industry that ISPA will work to mitigate through the CPSC rulemaking process. Among the items of concern:

• Changes in the bill could embolden new efforts to challenge pre-emption through litigation.
• The definition of children’s products could lead to new requirements for testing, certification and labeling of mattresses used by children 12 and younger.
• The exemption from the lead standard for inaccessible parts remains to be determined by the CPSC.
• Companies now have a shorter response time to protect their confidential information from being released by the CPSC.