The CPSIA fight is not yet won

There was a collective sign of relief heard round the internet on Friday evening when the stay of enforcement was announced. "We were heard!", "We're saved", it was deemed a "Stay of Execution" of our businesses. The same language that was used to exempt the retail and thrift stores was used and they were not considered saved.



Still, the news is good. It will allow us to operate until next year without certifying or testing our items. I'm still glad I had my items XRF tested before the stay happened. Because I can say with the highest level of confidence that my items comply with the new lead limits. What this really means for us is that we have been given another year to work toward the changes that need to be made to CPSIA

Here's an article that I'm in, published today in the Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123354219894838207.html?mod=todays_us_page_one


But good news can be short lived. We need to keep fighting for permanent change to be made to the law. If we sit on our laurels, a year will go by quickly and we will be in the same position a year from today as we were before the stay. We must continue to contact legislators.



Additionally, it is my understanding that calling the Committee of Commerce and Energy about this issue puts you into a voicemail box and that letters sent to the Committee chairs are being forwarded directly to your Congress person's office instead. These two things allow the Committee leaders to effectively ignore us in our insistance to be heard. We need to find more ways to get our message across. A government "for the people and by the people" should not be ignoring the people!



I think we should organize an enormous craft show/protest in Washington DC for all items affected by this issue. It would be a spectacular event, don't you think? Personally, I would donate a number of these "goody bags" for the first X number of people to come through the gates. Anyone feel like helping me organize this? We'll need a committee of experienced organizers, at least one of them in Washington, D.C in order to make this happen.



Senator Jim Demint is working toward legislative change. http://demint.senate.gov/public/index.cfm?FuseAction=JimsJournal.BlogHome. There are other people in Congress also working toward legislative changes.

Use this Stay as an additional call to action. If you haven't contacted your representative, do so TODAY! If you have contacted your representative, do so AGAIN! I say, the time for letters and emails has passed, call them. Get a personal contact in your representative's office and/or set up a meeting with your Congressperson. Find out very specifically where they stand on this issue and what they plan to do to help enact change to the law. Encourage bi-partisanship on this issue, separating into camps of Democrats and Republicans doesn't help anyone.

Happy Monday! And wishing you a good week!