The Business of Selling Yourself in America

Many of you have probably heard of the law (H.R. 4040) passed in August which seeks to establish consumer product safety standards and other safety requirements for children's products and to reauthorize and modernize the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) (legalese.) Unfortunately, an unintended effect of this law may very well be the end of many small businesses. There is lots more information to be had on the subject, my jumping off point was the Handmade Toy Alliance . This proved to be an excellent resource for all of the information I needed. The actual law itself is 68 pages long and can be read in it's entirety here. There are also wonderful abridged versions here and here by some crafter momtrepreneurs.

To make a long story short, it would appear that SOMETHING is being done in Washington. I recieved a well written email this morning from my congressman Providing me with a place to provide feedback to the CPSC. Here's a copy of the letter so that you can provide your comments too.



December 22, 2008

Jennifer Lastname
123 House Street
So Cal, CA
12345

Dear Jennifer:

Thank you for contacting me with your thoughts regarding consumer safety. It's a pleasure to hear from you.

As you know, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 4040 (Rush-IL), the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) Reform Act, which seeks to establish consumer product safety standards and other safety requirements for children's products and to reauthorize and modernize the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). The CPSC's mission is to protect children and families against unreasonable risk of injury and death from over 15,000 types of consumer products.

Like you, I am concerned by the uncertainty many Americans have with the safety of products that are imported and sold in the U.S. For this reason, I voted in favor of H.R. 4040 when it passed the House of Representatives on December 19, 2007, by a vote of 407-0. President Bush signed H.R. 4040 into law on August 14, 2008 (P.L. 110-314).

I agree with you that this bill, while favorable with respect to enhancing the effectiveness of the CPSC, also has several provisions that may harm small businesses instead of solely focusing on increased product safety. I am currently unaware of any legislation at the present time that has been introduced in the House to address these concerns, but you will be interested to learn that the CPSC is currently accepting comments on Section 102 of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act, Mandatory Third-Party Testing for Certain Children's Products until January 30, 2009. I would strongly encourage you to email your comments to Sec102ComponentPartsTesting@cpsc.gov

Thank you again for contacting me. Should you have any further questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to let me know.


Sincerely,

Duncan Hunter
Member of Congress





Low Standards Tee by Fatamerican at Etsy.com