Statement of Administration Policy: H.R. 3343 - Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 1987

(House Rules)
(Florio (D) New Jersey and 30 others)

If H.R. 3343 were presented to the President, his senior advisors would recommend that it be vetoed.

H.R. 3343 fails to address the organizational difficulties of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) by continuing the commission form of administration. The bill rejects the President's proposal to reorganize the CPSC from a multi-member commission to a single-administrator agency — as recommended by the General Accounting Office and the National Academy of Public Administration — and to transfer the agency from independent status to the Department of Health and Human Services. In addition, H.R. 3343 would:

—    remove the President's authority to appoint the Chairman of the CPSC, further removing the agency from executive oversight.

—    provide an unnecessary and unwarranted expansion of Federal regulatory authority by including permanently-fixed amusement rides and devices throughout the States and territories within CPSC's regulatory authority.

—    ban weighing of the cost to industry in determining remedial action. This would damage industry, lead to higher product prices, and prevent the CPSC from making fully informed decisions regarding the effects of its actions.

—    establish a personnel floor of 525 full-time CPSC employees, excessively restricting administrative flexibility.

—    require CPSC to regulate All-Terrain-Vehicles (ATVs) and require manufacturers of 3-wheel ATVs to refund the purchase price of such ATVs to consumers who return them. This provision is unnecessary since the final settlement decree between the Government and ATV manufacturers on March 18, 1988, contains specific, far reaching, and costly commitments by the industry pertaining to every element of relief deemed necessary.