Letter to my Congressman's Office

Here is a letter sent today to Jennifer Walters, the Legislative Assistant for Commerce at Congressman James McGovern's office.

Good Morning Jennifer:

Here is an important blog post by Rick Woldenberg which doesn’t even talk about our regular talking points surrounding testing or markings per se, but talks about some little talked about but ever so real problems.  They are issues that are sometimes difficult to communicate, but he explains them so well. 

In particular, I am also concerned about the complexity of the law.  We do work with a wide variety of companies and individuals.  Some of our store owners are still grasping to figure out what a “case pack” is let alone what a lot is or how to track certificates, etc.  I don’t mean this in a disparaging way, it is simply true that some do not have much experience (stores open every day), and others are better at other aspects of running a business.  Then there are more experienced business owners, and I hope I can include my self in this category with OVER 10 YEARS AND I STILL DO NOT UNDERSTAND THIS LAW AND CANNOT FULLY GRASP HOW WE CAN POSSIBLY IMPLEMENT IT INTO OUR BUSINESS SYSTEM.  The idea that we are supposed be able to educate our employees, fulfillment center, & suppliers to administer the regulations correctly 100% of the time, is nonsense.  This can be said of companies around the country.  For us to execute such a complicated law is next to impossible without errors (non-safety errors, but infractions of the law nonetheless—and infractions with huge implications).

I have often found myself speaking with others who do this every day like me.  And we find ourselves differing on many points of the law, that we do not understand fully ourselves. Imagine those that are getting information on a weekly or monthly basis from trade organizations or even worse…the media.

Please do read Rick’s blog.  Please do so as a person, or imagine yourself as a business person.  Do you want to be in this business?  Do you think you can STAY in business? 

http://learningresourcesinc.blogspot.com/2009/02/cpsia-information-overload.html

ALSO, very important.  Congressman McGovern wasn’t in a position to help with new Senate Bills.  He also didn’t feel he could contact the CPSC about delaying the CPSIA (by supporting the NAM Petition).  He now has an opportunity to do what Congressmen are supposed to do…support good bills.  Congressman Roscoe Bartlett is introducing a bill:

http://www.bartlett.house.gov/News/DocumentSingle.aspx?DocumentID=111006 .  We plead with Congressman McGovern to do what is right, and stand up to help save our industry.  Today’s blog hasn’t even touched on the economic crisis within our industry which has STARTED.  We are receiving reports.  Some of which I cannot forward yet, but about which you will no doubt be hearing about soon.  If this is about the economy, we need the Congressman to act.  If it is about children’s safety, we need him to act (to fix this so it works the way it should).  Every person in this country relies on both.

By the way there was a story in today’s Metrowest Daily News.  I will forward it to you when it appears online.

Sincerely,

Rob Wilson
Director of Marketing
Challenge & Fun, Inc.
888-384-6200

Are you aware that many safe, natural toys & children's products made or imported by small US companies will disappear next year?  This is due to needlessly expensive & complicated compliance requirements contained in the new children's products safety law.  Please learn more and help us save the natural/specialty children's products industry.

See:
www.cpsia-central.ning.com
www.handmadetoyalliance.org