Yesterday, the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved H.R. 4040, the Consumer Product Safety Commission Modernization Act of 2007. The bill is similar to a bill passed by the Senate Commerce Committee in October which would expand the resources and authority of the agency. Among other things, the bill would:

• Dramatically increase the budget and staffing at CPSC and dedicate funds for improving its much-maligned testing facility;
• Require third-party testing and certification for children's products;
• Ban lead in children's products; and
• Enable CPSC to levy greater fines on delinquent manufacturers.

Both the House and Senate bills await floor consideration. Legislators had hoped to finalize the legislation by the end of the year, wanting to be seen taking positive action on children's product safety during the Christmas-shopping season. Meanwhile, CPSC announced two more recalls of children's products due to high levels of lead. CPSC has announced 106 such recalls in 2007, totaling more than 17 million individual products. That's six times more than the number of products recalled in 2006.