Rep Butterfield questioned me about whether we REALLY needed to place labels on our rock kits indicating that our rocks might contain lead. As you may recall, I wrote about this last week and provided the clear explanation that the CPSIA bans the sale of any children's product which has components that may contain lead. That includes rocks in rock kits. Oops. I have embedded the clip of his query below, followed by a clip where Rep. Cassidy (a medical doctor) attempts to clarify the situation further.
I think it is important to note that Mr. Butterfield was making a point he believed in. He was gracious to me and my children before the hearing and I don't wish to question his intelligence here. I mean no insult or disrespect. Actually, the implication of his question is significant. He had days to study up on this question (he had a copy of my remarks in advance) and relied on Democratic counsel to the committee to analyze this legal point. He and his lawyers got it plainly wrong. As you will see below, Nancy Cowles also fumbled this same ball. The law CLEARLY requires this label of me, and it's THEIR law (the CPSIA). So what do I conclude? The Dems and the safety zealots don't understand the workings of the law they so vigorously defend. I believe this speaks directly to the challenge operating businesses face. If the authors don't get it, how are we supposed to? The answer is self-evident.
The question of WHY they continue to push so hard for a law they don't understand remains open. I don't think we can assert that they are bad people or dumb. If that's the case, and it is, what are they up to? I will chip away at this point in coming days.
Rep. Butterfield on rocks:
Rep. Cassidy on rocks:
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2 comments:
The list of things of which Rep. Butterfield is not aware would be longer than the health care bill. There are so many federal laws out there that one person cannot even be aware of all of them, let alone how they interact with one another. And the list of things of which Ms. Cowles is not aware would be twice as long.
I don't think the legislators were "up to" anything; I think that they genuinely did not understand A: how stringent the standards already were, B: the degree to which safety enforcement depends on industry-regulator partnerships, or C: the nature of the problem they were attempting to solve.
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