when a certain number of isolated consumer complaints and incidents involved into a full blown investigation and lead to an ultimate product recall congress has not been inactive when it comes to federal regulation of products and increasing the effectiveness consumer confidence in products to ensure that parents are not discouraged from purchasing a crib at all the consumer the companies that manufacture these products and congress must work together to improve communications and quickly  affectively wisely uses its new and additional resources and authorities to improve and product thank you mr chairman i look forward to the witnesses again at some point i'll have to step out of the other well thank you most of all do you make a good point there is you mr chairman ranking member walden i can't imagine a more important hearing for this committee to hold and the one we're having today as a child growing up in the late fifty's my parents had a drop side crib as a parent whose children were born in the late  s purchased assembled and my kids all spent time in a drop sighted career and to this regularly honors i want to extend to you our sympathy and also our appreciation for your courage and using this tragedy to teach others about last several months and i believe we need to act immediately to ensure that all cribs sold in the united states meet the highest safety standards possible you've heard the numbers six hundred thirty five thousand cribs made in china and vietnam  recalled this right on the heels of the large crib recall in u s history two months ago and this is something that hits home for me personally because the most recent recall has been linked to the october two thousand and eight  of a six month old infant in my state of iowa strangled after getting trapped in a dry crib on the drop side hardware in addition to that tragedy the c p s the received thirty one reports of incidents involving cribs including six reports of children being trapped between the mattress and the drop side and also received thirty six reports of broken slats on the crib and this gets back to my point earlier i can tell you having purchased an assembled a drop side crib thirty years after i was in one that the quality of materials being used is much less than it used to be in terms of the wood products and that's why we need to have a strong response to deal with this clear pattern of problems in their statement that the recalled cribs meet and exceed all applicable state standards if that is true then this is just one more clear indication that we need to act quickly as possible to strengthen and force any stand of these deaths are inexcusable that involve the most vulnerable members members of our population and we have no excuse for not fixing this problem immediately i'm glad to hear th has taken initial steps to address the safety concerns for cribs as mandated by the consumer product safety improvement act which we passed here in two thousand and eight and which this committee addressed in hearings and i'm concerned about the length of time this is taking and i look forward to hearing from chairwoman town embalm about the additional steps the commission is taking to improve an upgrade crib safety standards unfortunately these crib recalls also illustrate the dangers of free and unrestricted trade with companies that don't have same safety standards for manufacturing that we do in the united states to ensure the safety of american families we need to ensure that the countries we import products from are on a level playing field with those that are manufactured here in this country regarding products safety regulations that's why as chairman of the populous caucus i'm working to make sure that future trade agreements include strong product safety standards and that products imported into the united states meet or exceed u s health and safety standards and i believe that the enactment of those provisions contained in the trade act would go a long way toward ensuring the safety of imported products including  to thank you chairman stupe act for holding this timely an important hearing i look forward to the test money of all of our witnesses and i hope that this hearing will be an important step forward toward the prompt implementation and strong enforcement of the reverse maybe we can prevent future tragedies i am profoundly regretful that for so long the standards as it relates to crib safety have been voluntary and not mandatory despite more than seven million cribs being recalled in the last five years one of the first speeches that we have a new commissioner at the consumer product safety commission was last august and she correctly noted that a great deal of product safety occurs by relying on consensus standards coupled with regulatory authority to intervene quickly and should preface this by saying that they should be voluntary consensus standards this makes sense for a new commissioner who has witnessed the aftermath of the mandates that that being that the consumer products safety improvement act has beleaguered the consumer product safety commission yes we have improved their funding yes we have improved their staffing but i will tell you as one of the few members of congress who has been to the consumer product safety trying to come up with solutions and the only real solution is going back and fine tuning some aspects of that legislation and fixing the mistake that we made in that legislation was drafted for the consumer products safety improvement act specifically voluntary safety standards or provided a stricter federal safety standards and the consumer product safety commission were to initiate rulemaking by august two thousand and nine and two more rules every six months until all durable projects good morning we are robert also known as daddy and mommy but we have only heard three of our four children because our son bobby never had the chance on september fifteenth two thousand years the quality of the wood itself you could probably run a tank into and it would have collapsed i took four years of high school shop classes and i've assembled a lot of consumer products and i apply a lot of torque to make sure that they are properly tightened and i remember the one that i assembled even though it was on wheels and on a hardwood floor there was a limb in the way that it stood themselves about products do they want to buy products that are going to take care of their children we've seen information in preparation for this hearing that the thing that makes a crib unique is one of the few devices that an infant uses where you expect that child to be safe absent the constant attention of a parent that's the whole underlying premise for having a crib you can go to sleep with the confidence that child is going to wake up healthy and alive in the morning so one of the things we know is that most manufacturers who sell cribs in this country use certification meeting voluntary safety standards through the juvenile product manufacturing association  testimony for coming forward today we're so sorry for your loss and mr chairman i want to thank you very much for holding this hearing because you  standards in the world our members produce products that help prevent injuries to our children while tragic accidents often occur these products save many lives as an example child restraint or car seat save an untold number of children's lives products with two more pending as one of the largest voluntary standards development organizations in the world with over twenty two thousand members while standards are developed on a consensus basis by all interested parties any reputable stakeholder can join the standards development committee and vote on all aspects of the standard every standard development committee member with of can influence this process for years j p m a has worked alongside consumer advocacy organizations such as consumers union the consumer federation of america keeping baby safe and kids incorporated the federal standard in added forms testing requirements including restrictions and additional warning labels and instructional requirements sense that it has been modified multiple times to address emerging hazards including last december's modifications  in the marketplace certification program provides consumers the best way to know that the mandatory and the voluntary standards here's how the program works a manufacturer must apply to participate in the program and agree to have all of its models and pro shelves and test those products for proud of our role in promoting for the most vulnerable segment of our population according to first kandel one of the nation's leading nonprofit organizations dedicated to say pregnancy and the survival of babies the ad that parents can be assured that the products that we certify meet the applicable voluntary mandatory standards for those products ok mentioned the activity of the committee and if there are issues related to the product concerned that they address those and incorporate those into the standard and that the manufacturers meet those standards  participates in the process has an equal vote in that process and then in light of recent events do these companies like star craft lose their membership status in your organization they would not lose their membership  you're aware that it's much more difficult to ensure the integrity of those inspection process is when they're being done in a country like china which has very strict controls on access  standard that dictates how the instruction should be put together and i am not aware that there are issues with communication it is an issue that the group is working on and looking at adding some additional warnings and looking at instructions eliminating moving parts would help with any disassembly issues but i am not aware there are any issues with issues with instructions part of your certification requirement do they look at the assembly instructions being supplied by the manufacturer certification program the product has to be assembled to the manufacturer's instructions so that as a requirement point my point is the manufacturer in the latest recall is located in china located in vietnam a engineering psychologist comments as follows the best way to prevent an assembly is to limit the consumer's ability to put parts in the wrong place the least effective strategy is to modify the instructions or think that this is very consistent both with my experience on the committee i think i mentioned in my longer testimony that the committee will not even look at incidents that happened in cribs older than five years old even though as we heard from the family that could have easily been approved it was just in one place and