CONTENTS Ackley, Frank, Project Manager, Government Accounting Office................ Bush, Milton M., esquire, Sporting Goods Manufacturers Association........ Craig, Hon. Larry E., a Representative in Congress from the State of D'Amato, Hon. Alfonse, a U.S. Senator from the State of New York..... Dawson, Carol G., Vice Chairman, Consumer Product Safety Commission. Dean, Alan L., chairman, Standing Panel on Executive Organization and Management, National Academy of Public Administration.... DeFiore, Leonard, Executive Director, Consumer Product Safety Commis- Fogel, Richard L., Assistant Comptroller General for Human Resources Programs, Government Accounting Office Gilbert, Pamela, staff attorney, U.S. Public Interest Research Group. Gimer, Richard, esquire, Hamel & Park, representing the U.S. Chamber Graham, Anne, Commissioner, Consumer Product Safety Commission........ Lacy, James, general counsel, Consumer Product Safety Commission.. Miller, Hon. George, a Representative in Congress from the State of Ryan, James, volunteer, Program Department, American Association of Page Seidman, Harold, member of panel, National Academy of Public Adminis- Letters to Chairman Florio and Hon. Howard C. Nielson, dated No- Letters to Chairman Florio and Hon. Howard C. Nielson, dated No- 195 123 Responses to subcommittee questions and attachments 126 ...... (III) Page Material submitted for the record by-Continued Edelman, Peter B., professor of law, Georgetown University Law Center, statement..... 321 .......... Gas Appliance Manufacturers Association, letter to Chairman Florio dated November 12, 1987 412 Major U.S. Distributors of All-Terrain Vehicles, statement.. 311 363 National Electrical Manufacturers Association, statement........... 337 373 330 Portable Power Equipment Manufacturers Association, statement....... 395 310 Underwriters Laboratories Inc., statement.. 415 CONSUMER PRODUCT SAFETY COMMISSION REAUTHORIZATION TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 1987 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND Washington, DC. The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:40 a.m., in room 2123, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. James J. Florio (chairman) presiding. Mr. FLORIO. The subcommittee will kindly come to order. Let me apologize for the delay. One of our witnesses is not here yet, but he will hopefully join us before too long. And out of respect for the schedules of all of our witnesses and the members, we will start our hearing. I would like to welcome all in attendance to today's subcommittee hearing, which is going to consider legislation that has been introduced to reauthorize the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I, along with eight of my colleagues on this 15-member subcommittee, have introduced H.R. 3343. This legislation would restructure and reauthorize the Consumer Product Safety Commission and seeks to address the very serious problems with the Commission's performance and leadership, which the subcommittee has found to exist in the series of hearings that we have conducted over the last number of months. It's clear to me that the public's and the Congress' patience is running out with regard to agencies that don't do their job. About 2 weeks ago on the House floor, the House of Representatives rejected an effort to assign to the Federal Trade Commission unfair advertising jurisdiction over aviation matters, notwithstanding the fact that the FTC clearly has that jurisdictional area, I think in large measure because people are dissatisfied with the FTC. This week, another subcommittee of this Congress, of this committee, is going to be taking up a proposal to reregulate the railroads, in large measure because of dissatisfaction with the performance of the ICC, the Interstate Commerce Commission, which our chairman of our full committee has described as being brain dead. Well, it seems to me that we're coming to the end of the period of time when a laissez faire approach to public responsibilities was willing to be tolerated. The legislation that we are addressing today is designed to address the obvious problems that exist at the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The legislation will improve the Commission's administrative structure by making both the Chair (1) man and the staff more responsive to the Commission as a whole. The legislation will improve the regulatory process by requiring the Commission to begin the regulatory process if there is a significant risk of injury associated with a product and a safety rule would reduce the risk. This would serve as an incentive for the development of meaningful voluntary standards. The legislation would improve the role that the States can play. If the Commission is unwilling to act, the States would be able to step in to protect consumers more readily. In response to evidence and testimony that we've had at past subcommittee hearings about the Consumer Product Safety Commission's failure to deal adequately with the hazards of particular products, the legislation will improve the way the Commission deals with certain particular products, such as all-terrain vehicles, disposable lighters, and lawn darts. Just as a parenthetical note, it is interesting to observe that since our last hearing, the confirmed death toll with regard to allterrain vehicles was at that point 696 deaths. Between March 2 and June 8, there were 93 more deaths, an average of almost of 30 per month, making a total of 789. At the conservative rate of 20 deaths a month, the death toll now reaches 880. The subcommittee will also consider today H.R. 3443, a bill introduced by our colleague from California, Mr. Dannemeyer. This legislation would abolish the Consumer Product Safety Commission and transfer its functions to the Department of Health and Human Services. It would also make further changes in the Commission's ability to inform the public about unsafe products. I am hopeful that the witnesses today will address the two bills pending before the subcommittee, along with their views with regard to the Commission's performance in general. We have a long hearing. We have a long list of distinguished witnesses. The testimony has been presented to the committee in advance in accordance with the rules. I trust that the members have had an opportunity to go through the testimony, and therefore all of the formal testimony will be put into the record in its entirety, and the witnesses may feel free to proceed in a summary fashion. We would ask them to attempt to limit their presentations to about 10 minutes. [Testimony resumes on p. 47.] [Text of H.R. 3343 and H.R. 3443 follows:] I 100TH CONGRESS 1ST SESSION H. R. 3343 To amend the Consumer Product Safety Act and related laws to improve the performance of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to authorize appropriations for that Act, and for other purposes IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES Mr. FLORIO (for himself, Mr. ECKART, Mr. BATES, Mrs. COLLINS, Mr. RICHARDSON, Mr. SCHEUER, Mr. SHARP, and Mr. WAXMAN) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce A BILL To amend the Consumer Product Safety Act and related laws to improve the performance of the Consumer Product Safety Commission, to authorize appropriations for that Act, and for other purposes 1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE, REFERENCE. 4 (a) SHORT TITLE.-This Act may be cited as the "Con 5 sumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 1987”. 6 (b) REFERENCE.-Except as otherwise specifically pro 7 vided, whenever in this Act an amendment or repeal is ex8 pressed in terms of an amendment to, or repeal of, a section |