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Letter to Moore: Jennifer of Chapter One Organics
March 24, 2009 by Cecilia
Filed under Letters to Congress
March 22, 2009
Dear Commissioner Moore,
I am writing in response to the letter you wrote to Representative Dingell
that was posted to the CPSC website on March 20, 2009.
While I realize your letter was directed to Representative Dingell, I am
writing to share with you my concerns about your letter. I own an organic
cotton baby clothing business that is impacted by the CPSIA. Specifically
in this paragraph I am in disbelief at the way you address businesses
affected by CPSIA, “Congress has entrusted this agency with a large and
important mission. The passage of the CPSIA was a huge vote of confidence
for the agency and despite the hue and cry of some in the business community
who will never be happy with the closer scrutiny and accountability required
by the Act, it is a major accomplishment of the last Congress, and one that
your leadership was instrumental in achieving.”
As a business owner who cares about child safety and who is affected by this
new law I will tell you that I am opposed to CPSIA, but not for the reason
you have mentioned. CPSIA is deeply flawed as Ms. Nord and the CPSC staff
outlined in their comprehensive letter submitted to Representative Dingell
on March 20, 2009. As a business owner and mother, I am constantly
accountable for my actions. We manufacture products that have been tested
in which all of our components test well below 100 ppm but yet this law will
require me to test our product continually for lead. The CPSIA does not
differentiate among the size of business, the materials used, the
commodities, the industries, the accessibility of parts, and so on…the
list is rather endless.
The majority of us in the business community would like to see a smart law
that is focused on products that pose risks and the CPSIA is clearly not the
answer. We are seeing huge losses being reported by small and large
companies and it isn’t because their products are toxic, it is because the
law does not work.
It is astonishing to me that after six months of dealing with this, your
response to Representative Dingell’s questions didn’t even scratch the
surface of the issues regarding this law and instead seemed completely
politically driven. As a tax payer, I resent that you are unable to work as
a team with Ms. Nord. In the private sector we often have to work in
imperfect environments. If we don’t design, create, solve problems and
implement, we don’t produce products, money, or jobs.
Let me reassure you that I would not have spent the past four to five months
of my life and money to figure out why and how to comply with the CPSIA if I
were not accountable. We don’t mind complying with laws that work but the
CPSIA doesn’t work.
I would like to get back to what I was doing five months ago which was
building a business, creating a safe organic product, and employing women in
need. Furthermore, I would rather not be spending my time or money to
travel to Washington on April 1 for the Rally and Congressional Briefing
with my colleagues but, if I don’t, I may not have a business to continue
working in.
I mean no disrespect but I would truly appreciate it if you could put aside
your politics and not wait to realize that there are devastating
consequences to this law that aren’t in the name of safety and aren’t a
result of businesses not wanting to be accountable. If our businesses are
forced to wait for your world to be perfect, our citizens lose jobs and
businesses close their doors.
Thank you for your time.
Sincerely,
Jennifer Murphy
President/Founder
Chapter One Organics, Inc.
jennifer@chapteroneorganics.com
312.860.1186
www.chapteroneorganics.com
www.thegreeneaters.com
Great letter Jennifer. If anyone else wants to hold Thomas Moore accountable for what many of us consider to be his responsibilities in working productively with his co-workers at the agency, his email address is tmoore@cpsc.gov
What a wonderful response to Thomas Moore. I think you have called him out on how political this issue has become in the name of “protection” and has totally lost sight on the impacts on children, businesses, and our economy.
I think these lines shout out our major problem we’re all facing:
“In the private sector we often have to work in
imperfect environments. If we don’t design, create, solve problems and
implement, we don’t produce products, money, or jobs.”
Well done. We all would love to know what type of response YOU get back!
What a shame that the organizers of the rally are denying the reality of the attitude in Washington for the past several years and having as speakers the same people responsible for this attitude. It is this attitude that eroded the role that citizens expect the government to play in protecting us from harmful products. The role of the lobbyists in designing the law is obvious-small businesses will be hurt which will reduce competition for the large companies who can easily bear these costs.
Mr. Moore’s response to Representative Dingle sums it up- Make believe the reality is what you say it is and you can get people to believe your fantasy instead of reality.
Keep up the good work Jennifer!
Nice letter.
Just to clarify, this is an OPEN rally and members of both parties have been invited. The Repulicans,SO FAR, seem to be only members willing to contribute.
Eventhough this law was signed in under Bush – both sides signed this into law BUT they forgot to read it! And as bad as Bush was – we wasn’t going to vote against child “safety”.
This law was actually created by Democratics and special interest groups (PIRG, Consumers Union, etc.) and so far they haven’t been willing to admit changes are needed TO THE LAW and are instead blaming Nancy Nord (A Bush Appointee) at the CPSC. Moore, her peer, (appointed by Clinton) doesn’t see eye-to-eye with her. This isn’t rocket science.
You can read more about the politics of CPSIA here…
http://heartkeepercommonroom.blogspot.com/2009/03/cpsia-rally-and-censorship.html
First, if my previous post was not clear – I applaud Jennifer for all her work and all the others involved in this. I like to see democracy in action.
Second, yes it was not clear where the “censorship” originated.
However, it also seems obvious that a little bit more information about some aspects of this would be helpful.
1.The CPSC, which implements the laws for consumer protection, is supposed to be a three member commission.It has had two members since 2006. Nord appointed by Bush and Moore appointed by Clinton and reappointed by Bush. The third position has been vacant since 2006. The result of this lack of a third member is many 1-1 votes which make the commission ineffectual in implementing real change.
2. The groups who worked for this law are citizen interest groups- they do not represent special interests such as manufacturers. If you are interested in learning of their concern for small businesses, hand crafters etc. and their suggestions for fixing the law you can view their statement at the Public Citizen website http://www.citizen.org.
3. If I was involved in organizing this I would do two things: push the Obama administration to appoint a third member of the CPSC and work to have some say as to who that person is and 2. after the rally have as many people as possible visit the offices of their congress(wo)man or senators to tell them their concerns. An elected official may ignore a rally but they have a harder time ignoring voters from their district who are sitting in their office.
Good Luck to all of you for a very successful and effective rally.
Thanks for the comments. Unfortunately there is a political drama surrounding us on this issue. Not sure why since the law was voted in by both sides. At this point I don’t think it matters who appointed the commissioners. We need changes made to the law, it doesn’t work, it is that simple. The law is too complicated and complex and if you ask 10 people how they are complying you get 10 different answers, that is a problem.
The finger pointing has to stop and someone needs to take accountability for the situation. Many of us have contacted Public Citizen only to be disappointed with the outcome. Apparently they say we misunderstand the law. If we do, I am still waiting for an explanation from someone.
We have many face-to-face meetings before and after the rally.