Consumer 11.0: Product safety at risk in bid to remake laws

Elections have consequences, we always like to say, so it's no surprise that the U.S. House's new Republican majority arrived champing at the bit to reverse signature achievements of the last Congress, including the Affordable Care Act and creation of an independent Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

But last week's Washington dramas made clear that some GOP leaders have broader, deeper, and more radical aims - including ones that would reverse policies that have previously enjoyed bipartisan support.

That was demonstrated on a grand scale when House Budget Chairman Paul Ryan (R., Wis.) announced a plan that would basically transform Medicare into a voucher program and turn Medicaid over to the states - proposals that would cap both programs' funding and end, in one fell swoop, the federal government's long-standing commitment to provide health insurance for the elderly, poor, and disabled.

It was also made clear by to-the-brink threats to shut down the government unless Democrats agreed to budgetary riders that would block funding for Planned Parenthood and protect coal-mining companies from environmental rules.

With bigger matters at stake, it was easy to overlook another drama unfolding last week: a little-noticed assault on the Consumer Product Safety Commission's efforts to improve children's safety and the transparency of its complaint-handling process. But it sadly fits right into the theme of a Republican Party eager to please its core constituencies - in this case, business groups that often bristle at any regulation, even ones designed to protect children from unsafe products.

Just three years ago, after a wave of recalls of toxic toys, many of them imported from China, bipartisan majorities in Congress and President George W. Bush passed the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008, giving the small consumer-product agency new authority and responsibilities.

Among the law's key provisions were requirements that children's products finally be required to undergo third-party safety testing before hitting the market - a glaring omission that was made painfully clear in years past when design flaws led to the recalls of millions of portable cribs and play yards with hardware that could entrap and suffocate young children.