Just to be clear, the NAM CPSC Coalition’s petition (see this post) to the CPSC requested a delay in the effective date of the lead content standards in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act. The first paragraph in the letter from the CPSC coalition:

On behalf of the Consumer Product Safety Commission Coalition of the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM CPSC Coalition), and the undersigned parties to this letter (hereinafter referred to collectively as (”the Requesters”), we respectfully request the Commission to issue an immediately effective emergency rule staying the effective date of limits on lead content in accessible parts and components in children’s products established under Section 101(a)(2) of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (”CPSIA”) (Pub. L. 110-314). The length of the requested stay is 185 days, or until 90 days after final comprehensive rules and interpretative regulations implementing Section 101 are issued, if later. We do not think that when it adopted the deadlines in the CPSIA Congress realized or intended to effectuate a massive economic dislocation at a time when so many businesses are teetering on the edge of financial ruin and we are suffering the largest job losses in decades.

The CPSC instead issued “a one year stay of enforcement for certain testing and certification requirements”

For more commentary, see the Reform CPSIA website, http://reformcpsia.org/

UPDATE (8:50 a.m.): Also, as the Coalition’s analysis of the CPSC’s action notes: “CPSC’s actions grant no relief to manufacturers, retailers, thrift stores, resellers, distributors or others who have asked the CPSC for clarity regarding the definition of accessible components and exclusion of certain products or materials.  For example, if a manufacturer requests that a product be exempted by rulemaking, and ultimately it is not exempted, any such product sold would be subject to recall and the manufacturer could potentially be subject to class action litigation for selling banned hazardous substances.  Because these risks are too great, many manufacturers may not take these risks by continuing to sell products.”

UPDATE (9 a.m.): News coverage…

• Washington Post, “Officials Delay New Toy-Testing Standards“
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer, “Small businesses get reprieve on children’s lead law “
• Bloomberg, “US Panel Delays Requirement That Toys Be Tested for Lead “

The Consumer Product Safety Commission late Friday announced a one-year stay of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act’s enforcement of requirements for testing of products that will be used by children. (News release.) The action, coming in the wake of a full-scale revolt by small manufacturers of toys, garments and other children’s products, provides very little relief.

CPSC Acting Chairman Nancy issued a statement in conjunction with the stay. This excerpt make it clear that everyone’s still on the hook:

The action we are taking today puts in place a limited “time-out” so that the Commission and the Congress can address the issues with the law that have become so painfully apparent. The stay will give the CPSC time to develop and issue rules defining responsibilities of manufacturers, importers, retailers, and testing labs. It will give the Commission time to rule on exemptions andexclusions from the lead provisions and develop and put in place appropriate testing protocols. It will give staff time to develop an approach to component parts testing, given the ambiguity of the statute on this point.

It is important to clearly understand what the stay does and does not do. The stay of enforcement of the testing and certification provisions will give some temporary and limited relief to small manufacturers, home-based businesses and crafters who cannot comply with the law without incurring substantial testing costs. However, the stay does not relieve them of complying with the underlying requirements enacted by Congress and which go into effect on February 10, 2009, dealing with lead, phthalates and a number of other toy standards. Any changes to these requirements will need to be addressed by Congress.

The Consumer Product Safety Improvement act also empowered state attorneys general to enforce the CPSIA’s provisions, so an ambitious AG could still wreak havoc by targeting manufacturers of children’s products, or products used by children, or products that may come in contact with children. To which the CPSC says, “The Commission trusts that State Attorneys General will respect the Commission’s judgment that it is necessary to stay certain testing and certification requirements and will focus their own enforcement efforts on other provisions of the law, e.g. the sale of recalled products.”

That’s placing a lot of trust in the restraint of politicians.

Bottom line, the CPSC’s action provides no legal protection for manufacturers of products requiring testing and really just confuses the issue.

Let’s get moving, Congress.

For more, see Walter Olson’s post at Overlawyered.com. He comments:

This is, in general, very good news, but two problems need to be pointed out. One is that the action may be vulnerable to legal challenge as violating the CPSC’s legal obligations to regulate, and in particular to enforce CPSIA’s terms faithfully. As if to confirm that danger, prominent “consumer” groups — that is, the same groups that pushed CPSIA through to enactment and have vocally defended the law ever since — issued a letter this afternoon digging into their position that there’s nothing wrong with the law and that Congress should not revisit it. (Consumers Union, Public Citizen — the latter, it will be recalled, being the group whose David Arkush wrote last month “I haven’t heard a single legitimate concern yet” about the law.)

In other developments, Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC) announced he will introduce a bill to fix the CPSIA’s excesses. His news release is here.

Check the metadata of the following executive order signed by President Obama yesterday, and you’ll find the author of the original .pdf document:

• NOTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEE RIGHTS UNDER FEDERAL LABOR LAWS

It’s Craig Becker, associate general counsel of the Service Employees International Union, the SEIU. (Or counsel.)*

Becker served on the Obama transition’s “agency review team” for the Department of Labor.

Guess that’s what they meant by “Your Seat at the Table.”

* It’s entirely possible that Becker has joined the Administration. He’s not on the Department of Labor’s key personnel list, however. (And we’re not able to check further since it’s early Saturday morning. The executive orders are still not posted at the White House’s website, we note. We received the .pdfs via e-mail from an attorney friend.)

UPDATE A broken url. Now fixed.

House Majority Whip James Clyburn (D-SC) leads this week’s “America’s Business with Mike Hambrick,” outlining the priorities in the $825 billion stimulus bill and making the case that its passage will restore the U.S. economy, creating jobs in the process.

Representative Clyburn says, “We think that we have been very conscious of what it takes to assist American businesses stand back up and to help get our economy moving again.”

Included in the stimulus package is funding to support adoption of information technology in health care.  Joel White, executive director of the Health IT Now! coalition, details the funding provisions and make the case that IT investment can improve health care quality.

Passed last year in response to lead-contaminated toys from China, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act includes strict testing requirements for children’s products — mandates that are prohibitively expensive for small businesses.  Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, has been covering the law’s business-killing excesses at his popular website, overlawyered.com.  He joins us to discuss the law’s many problems.

The Maryland Manufacturers Alliance of Maryland has released a new report, “Manufacturing in Maryland – The Cornerstone of Shared Prosperity.” Gene Burner, President of the Alliance, is here to talk about what Maryland is bringing to table in terms of manufacturing, and how the state could promote this important sector of the economy. Think energy and taxes.

In our regular segments, Renee Giachino of American Justice Partnership gives us the latest on tort reform and commentator Hank Cox recalls “The Way It Was.”

And for more on America’s Business, visit the homepage, www.americasbusiness.org

Here are the executive orders that President Obama signed today.

NOTIFICATION OF EMPLOYEE RIGHTS UNDER FEDERAL LABOR LAWS

NONDISPLACEMENT OF QUALIFIED WORKERS UNDER SERVICE CONTRACTS

ECONOMY IN GOVERNMENT CONTRACTING

None is yet posted at WhiteHouse.gov, Briefing Room. A late Friday release usually means what again?

(UPDATE) (6 p.m.): Or rather, downdates, i.e., earlier posts.

• President Obama and Organized Labor, III
• President Obama and Organized Labor, II
• President Obama and Organized Labor, Together
• Organized Labor Getting Its Way

Walter Olson of the Manhattan Institute joins host Mike Hambrick on “America’s Business” radio program this week to talk about the legal and regulatory headache that is the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act.

We’ve linked to Walter’s Overlawyered.com posts quite a few times in recent days, as he covers the grassroots reaction from entrepreneurs and others — toy makers, clothing manufacturers, even thrift stores — who discover that the CPSIA’s testing requirements are onerous and expensive and will force the removal of many items from shops. (Stock up now for your child’s First Communion, because the products are going away.)

For the full interview as an .mp3 file, click here. And marvel at the excesses that result when Congress legislates in excited response to “consumer groups” stirring up a media frenzy.

We’ll have the full America’s Business program up later this evening.

From the President’s statement today:

So I’m going to be signing three executive orders designed to ensure that federal contracts serve taxpayers efficiently and effectively.  One of these orders is going to prevent taxpayer dollars from going to reimburse federal contractors who spend money trying to influence the formation of unions.  We will also require that federal contractors inform their employees of their rights under the National Labor Relations Act.  Federal labor laws encourage collective bargaining, and employees should know their rights to avoid disruption of federal contracts.

And I’m issuing an order so that qualified employees will be able to keep their jobs even when a contract changes hands.  We shouldn’t deprive the government of these workers who have so much experience in making government work.

Thus, NOT a reversal of the four executive orders from President Bush circa February 2001. No mention of Project Labor Agreements. And, as we read it,  the reference to a measure to “prevent dollars from going to reimburse federal contractors who spend money trying to influence the formation of unions,” engages the issues that came up in “Chamber of Commerce of the United States v. Lockyer.” A California law sought to bar a employer who received state grants or funds from using that money to take a position in union organizing. The 9th Circuit upheld the law, but federal labor law supersede state law, and the Supreme Court reversed and remanded. 

It would really help if the executive orders were online. News accounts like this piece from The New York Times are too skimpy, and obviously our speculation about substance turned out to be wrong.

From Motorcyle Daily.com:

According to a letter sent to Honda dealers dated January 23, 2009, which you can read below, a Congressional Act passed in response to the sale of unsafe, lead-tainted toys last year, could result in a ban on sale of certain Honda motorcycles and ATVs sized for youngsters after February 10, 2009. The language of the Congressional Act is broad enough to encompass motorcycles containing lead in “substrate material” over 600ppm, which would impact certain motorcycles and ATVs even though paint on those models contains lead within acceptable limits. The affected Honda motorcycles and ATVs are the TRX 90, CRF 50F, CRF 70F and CRF 80F, but the ban would seemingly encompass any motorcycle or ATV “designed or intended primarily for children 12 years of age or younger.” Honda hopes to convince Congress to exempt alloyed parts for small motorcycles and ATVs from the terms of the Congressional Act, but time is running out.

We’ve put the letter in the extended entry below.

As far as reading a book goes…

From Publisher’s Weekly: “The clock is ticking toward February 10—now less than two weeks away—when lead testing becomes required for children’s products under the Consumer Products Safety Improvement Act of 2008. Still no word on an exemption for books.”

The AP describes the executive orders signed by President Obama this morning as follows:

• Require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change.
• Reverse a Bush order requiring federal contractors to post notices that workers can limit financial support of unions.
• Prevent federal contractors from being reimbursed for expenses meant to influence workers deciding whether to form a union.

No mention of reversing President Bush’s executive order on project labor agreements in federal contracts, as mentioned below.

The White House website has an item about the Middle Class Task Force being created, but no listing yet of the executive orders. We’ll post the orders when they get around to posting them at WhiteHouse.gov.

As noted yesterday, President Obama will revoke executive orders signed by President Bush in 2001, in the process giving organized labor another political victory. As AP put it:

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is playing to one of the Democratic Party’s most reliable constituencies — organized labor — reversing a number of his predecessor’s executive orders that critics regard as anti-union.

Labor leaders were to visit the White House for a second consecutive day Friday, where, a union official said, Obama was to abolish four Bush-era directives that unions opposed and then reintroduce Vice President Joe Biden’s task force focused on the middle class.

Along with the signing of the Ledbetter bill, the executive orders help prevent labor from getting restive over the White House deemphasizing the the Employee Free Choice Act. The card check legislation is too politically charged, too damaging to the economy and its congressional support is waning, so labor has to settle for these other measures.

But we shouldn’t let process and politics obscure the substance of what the President’s executive orders will do. For one, employees in union shops will now be deprived of useful information about how to decertify a union — labor views the mere presence of such information in the workplace as a hostile act.

And in allowing project labor agreements (PLAs) in federal construction contracts, labor gains an advantage while depriving many qualified people an opportunity at work and increasing the costs of the projects. Louisiana Republicans made the point in a letter to the President about Hurricane Katrina recovery projects:

“In Louisiana, just 12.6 percent of private construction workers belong to a construction labor union, ” the Louisiana Republicans said. “If PLAs are attached to federal construction projects in Louisiana over 87 percent of local workers will be locked out of the rebuilding process.”

The Bush orders being repealed:

 Executive Order on Notification of Employee Rights Concerning Payment of Union Dues or Fees 
 Executive Order: Revocation of Executive Order on Nondisplacement of Qualified Workers under Certain Contracts 
 Executive Order and Presidential Memorandum Concerning Labor-Management Partnerships 
 Executive Order on Preservation of Open Competition and Government Neutrality Towards Government Contractors’ Labor Relations on Federal and Federally Funded Construction Projects 

UPDATE (12:55 p.m.): Judging by news accounts (see above), it’s not clear that all four Bush executive orders are being repealed.