Congress Turns Toy Story into Nightmare for Small Business

February 10, 2009
By Jim DeMint

In a mad rush to "do something" last fall about the lead paint scare involving children's toys, Congress hastily passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. Today that law goes into effect, and its unintended - but entirely foreseeable - consequences have begun to threaten our already fragile economy.CPSIA was meant to protect children from careless or unscrupulous Chinese toy manufacturers, but its ultimate function may be to stifle competition in the domestic market for children's goods. The legislation requires expensive tests - for lead and other toxins - be conducted on all products marketed to children under the age of 12, and imposes cumbersome rules to be followed. Big companies with large legal teams and regulatory compliance staffs - foreign and domestic - can afford such tests and follow these rules without much difficulty.

But the CPSIA makes no distinction between such businesses and consignment shops, thrift stores, and small manufacturing companies. Under the new law, even stay-at-home moms selling baby blankets and headbands online would be vulnerable to fines and lawsuits for not conducting the expensive tests or filling out "Form XYZ" in triplicate. the rest image