handcraftivist

The origins of the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act 2008 are played out in videos dating from 2007 as the bill was first introduced in Congress and hashed out with the Consumer Product Safety Commission. The CPSIA was passed by Congress and signed into law by President George W. Bush in August 2008.

However, the true and devastating impact of the CPSIA was not realized by even a small fraction of those who would be affected until November/December 2008. As the effective date of February 10, 2009 drew closer, a handful of individuals began a grassroots effort to bring the need to amend the CPSIA to the attention of lawmakers and into the public eye. A wide range of US businesses that make or sell children's products from cottage handcrafters to thrift stores, libraries to kids' minibikes and ATVs came together to petition the Consumer Product Safety Commission who has since mandated stays of enforcement for the time being.

But, without significant amendment to this over reaching law, come February 10, 2010, we will see the demise of more small businesses, children's educational, homeschool educational, consignment and thrift stores, children's books printed before 1985 in our libararies and cottage handcrafters as a result of cost prohibitive lead testing mandated by the CPSIA.

Twitter's @cmmjaime is blogging about each CPSIA video at http://www.clcandcpsia.blogspot.com

Tongue-in-cheek look at the CPSIA