CPSC Reform Legislation Before President for Signing into Law
Client Alert | 1 min read | 08.08.08
On Wednesday, July 30, H.R. 4040, the conference report to the "Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008" passed in the House of Representatives by a vote of 424 - 1. Late Thursday, July 31, the conference report passed in the Senate by a vote of 89 - 3. The President is expected to sign the bill into law in the next several weeks. Among other reform measures, the Act calls for broad changes in children's products safety and CPSC enforcement authority. Some notable provisions include:
- Defining children's products as those intended for use by children 12 years old and younger
- Enacting a progressive ban on lead in children's products
- Permanently banning three types of phthalates (DEHP, DBP, BBP) concentrations above 0.1 percent while temporarily banning three others (DINP, DIDP, DnOP) in children's products
- Additional requirements on certain children's products and toys including tracking labels, third party testing and advertising and labeling rules
- Requiring manufacturers of durable infant and toddler products to provide consumers with a postage-paid consumer registration form with each such product
- Establishing a publicly available, searchable, accessible database of consumer reports of harm
- Broadening CPSC authority to recall products and modify corrective action plans
- Enhancing CPSC authority to identify complete supply chains
- Significantly increasing civil penalties to $100,000 per violation or up to $15 million for a related series of violations as well as increasing criminal penalties from a maximum of one year to a maximum of five years
Insights
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.21.25
On November 7, 2025, in Thornton v. National Academy of Sciences, No. 25-cv-2155, 2025 WL 3123732 (D.D.C. Nov. 7, 2025), the District Court for the District of Columbia dismissed a False Claims Act (FCA) retaliation complaint on the basis that the plaintiff’s allegations that he was fired after blowing the whistle on purported illegally discriminatory use of federal funding was not sufficient to support his FCA claim. This case appears to be one of the first filed, and subsequently dismissed, following Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche’s announcement of the creation of the Civil Rights Fraud Initiative on May 19, 2025, which “strongly encourages” private individuals to file lawsuits under the FCA relating to purportedly discriminatory and illegal use of federal funding for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives in violation of Executive Order 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity (Jan. 21, 2025). In this case, the court dismissed the FCA retaliation claim and rejected the argument that an organization could violate the FCA merely by “engaging in discriminatory conduct while conducting a federally funded study.” The analysis in Thornton could be a sign of how forthcoming arguments of retaliation based on reporting allegedly fraudulent DEI activity will be analyzed in the future.
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 3 min read | 11.20.25
Client Alert | 6 min read | 11.19.25
