Responding to recalls, Senate passes toy bill

WASHINGTON – Responding to record recalls of products that sickened children, the Senate passed legislation Thursday that would toughen inspections of toys and other playthings made outside the U.S.

The bill calls for a public database of consumer complaints, bolsters the Consumer Products Safety Commission to help it certify the safety of overseas products, bans lead in children’s goods and sets new standards for safe toys.

It won approval by a 79-13 vote after four days of debate. The Bush administration and other critics said the database unfairly could taint manufacturers. But President Bush stopped short of threatening a veto.

“I think this is a major consumer bill and it’s going to make a bit difference to parents across America,” Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, said in an interview. “Parents should be able to know that the products they buy for their children are safe. This bill will greatly help in assuring that products are safe.”

Both the Senate and House versions passed with veto-proof margins, increasing the chances a compromise would draw similar support.

“Even though [Bush] doesn’t like it, I think he’s going to have to take it,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., told reporters during a conference call.

Congress has much to do before Bush has the chance to make that decision.

“The hard work starts” now, said Sen. Mark Pryor, D-Ark., with negotiators from each chamber working to reconcile their differences. He managed the bill with Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn.

The House’s version has many differences, including a lower cap for jury awards.

The congressional debate was thick with emotion. The mothers of two boys sickened by toys tearfully urged Congress to speed the legislation to the president, saying many provisions would have helped her children and prevent others from similar dangers.

For Colton Burkhart’s parents, it was a medallion from a gumball-type machine that cost just a quarter, but nearly took his life.

Colton, then 4, swallowed the trinket and almost died from the lead it contained. Four years and a battery of tests, surgeries and therapy later, the Redmond, Ore., boy still has elevated levels of lead in his body.

It was his case – and hundreds like it – as well as the recalls last year of millions of Chinese-produced toys, from Barbie doll accessories to Thomas the Tank Engine, that led Congress to overhaul the agency responsible for ensuring that toys and other products pose no hazard.

The Senate bill, which includes amendments by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, would nearly double the agency’s budget and increase its staff to nearly 500 people by 2013.

The new database would collect information from people, hospitals and other sources about injuries, illnesses and deaths from consumer products.

“This legislation is critical when taking into account that an ever-increasing number of the consumer products sold on our shelves are manufactured in countries with appalling health and quality control standards, such as China,” said Snowe. “Nearly 20 percent of consumer goods sold in the U.S. are imported from China alone. I therefore applaud my colleagues for supporting this legislation that will boost the number of commission import inspection staff on the ground, who are the best defense we have against dangerous foreign products.”

Colton’s mother, Kara, visited the Senate this week to tell anyone who would listen about Colton’s ordeal. But Colton fared better than another 4-year-old, Jarnell Graham of Minneapolis, who died from lead poisoning under similar circumstances.

“My heart broke for his family, and for the first time my emotions about the fact my son almost died hit me,” said Kara Burkhart. “No child should ever have to go through anything like this.”

The database proposed in the Senate’s bill is similar to one used by the Department of Transportation to alert customers of recalls within the industry, according to Collins.

“It takes time to recall a product, so it’s important for consumers to post hazardous products to help parents detect problems sooner,” Collins said.

The House version, which passed by a 407-0 vote in December, only proposes that the agency conduct a study on how to create a database.

The Senate bill would raise the civil penalty cap per violation from $8,000 to $250,000 and the limit for a related series of violations from $1.8 million to $20 million; the House version would raise the penalty limit to $10 million.

The White House and some Republicans oppose some of the tougher standards in the Senate bill and point out that passing two different versions would require time to reconcile the differences and slow the legislation’s progress.

The administration issued a statement this week citing a half-dozen provisions about which it had various levels of concern. The agency, according to the administration, should enforce safety standards, not attorneys general.

Also, new legal shields for whistleblowers “will cause a serious increase in the number of frivolous claims brought against employers,” the statement said.

Vicki Ekstrom of the Boston University Washington News Service contributed to this report.