HTA invited to testify at House Commerce Committee CPSIA Hearing

The HTA has received an invite to testify at this Thursday’s Commerce Committee hearing for the CPSIA. For the event, we will send three of our Board members on our behalf. Dan Marshall, Jolie Fay and Randall Hertzler will make the trip to DC to participate in this very important process.

Earlier in the week, we officially endorsed the proposed amendment, with a number of stipulations to include in the report language. We recognize that the amendment isn't perfect, and that it in fact increases the amount of work we will need to do with the CPSC (working for flexible reasonable testing protocols and alternative testing methods). That being said, it does serve to offer many in our membership significant relief from the third party testing protocols the CPSIA imposes. We understand that the amendment does not change the overall language of the CPSIA (specifically, it does not change the wording of “no risk” to “de minus” risk), but it has become fairly clear to us that the CPSIA will not be changed in this way. Our hope at this point is that an amendment will move through the House and Senate and be adopted into law.

After the HTA and others signed on endorsing the amendment, a meeting was scheduled for the committee to “mark up” and discuss the bill. This meeting was canceled. Instead, Rep. Waxman, Rep. Barton and Rep. Dingell met and scheduled the hearing that will take place this coming week. The consensus was that stake holders needed to be given the opportunity to discuss and vocalize any and all concerns regarding the proposed amendment.

We are very excited and honored to be included within the short list of those invited to testify. We will have the opportunity to read a prepared statement, and then participate in a panel question and answer period. Please know that we will work extremely hard to share with the committee all of your stories and all of your concerns with the CPSIA. Our understanding is that the event will be web cast, you should be able to find it here or here.

Any and all donations to help send our members to DC would be greatly appreciated. To Donate, visit http://www.handmadetoyalliance.org/ (click on button on the left side). Thanks!