IIB 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION H. R. 8134 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

SEPTEMBER 30 (legislative day, SEPTEMBER 29), 2020 

Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, 

and Transportation 

AN ACT 

To support the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s capability to protect consumers from unsafe consumer products, and for other purposes. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 


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1 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

2 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Consumer Product 

3 Safety Inspection Enhancement Act’’. 

4 SEC. 2. ENHANCED RISK ASSESSMENT METHODOLOGY. 

5 Section 17 of the Consumer Product Safety Act (15 

6 U.S.C. 2066) is amended by adding at the end the fol7 lowing new subsection: 

8 ‘‘(i) ENHANCED RISK ASSESSMENT METHOD9 OLOGY.— 

10 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months 

11 after the date of enactment of the Consumer Prod12 uct Safety Inspection Enhancement Act, the Com13 mission shall enhance targeting, surveillance, and 

14 screening of consumer products entering the United 

15 States at ports of entry, including ports of entry for 

16 de minimis shipments, by— 

17 ‘‘(A) working in consultation with Customs 

18 and Border Protection to— 

19 ‘‘(i) access and leverage all available 

20 data, including manifest data, to enhance 

21 targeting of violative consumer products, 

22 including de minimis shipments containing 

23 violative consumer products; 

24 ‘‘(ii) access and leverage intellectual 

25 property rights seizure data to target prod26 ucts that may have both intellectual propVerDate Sep 11 2014 06:00 Oct 01, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H8134.RFS H8134

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1 erty rights infringements and consumer 

2 product safety violations; 

3 ‘‘(iii) prioritize shipments coming 

4 from the People’s Republic of China; and 

5 ‘‘(iv) use the Participating Govern6 ment Agencies Message Set, or any suc7 cessor program, and additional consumer 

8 product specific data elements, including 

9 certificates of compliance and any other 

10 data that the Commission needs, to help 

11 risk assess and target violative consumer 

12 products; and 

13 ‘‘(B) building and improving information 

14 technology systems to support electronic access 

15 to and connection with the data and targeting 

16 systems associated with express consignment 

17 carrier facilities, international mail facilities, 

18 electronic commerce platforms, and other appli19 cable system participants. 

20 ‘‘(2) ELECTRONIC FILING OF CERTIFICATES OF

21 COMPLIANCE.—Beginning not later than 2 years 

22 after the date of enactment of the Consumer Prod23 uct Safety Inspection Enhancement Act, certificates 

24 of compliance shall be filed electronically for con25 sumer products intended for entry into the United 


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1 States to enhance risk assessment and target de 

2 minimis shipments containing violative consumer 

3 products. 

4 ‘‘(3) DEFINITIONS.—As used in this sub5 section— 

6 ‘‘(A) the term ‘de minimis shipments’ 

7 means articles containing consumer products 

8 entering the United States under the de mini9 mis value exemption in 19 U.S.C. 

10 1321(a)(2)(C); 

11 ‘‘(B) the term ‘express consignment carrier 

12 facility’ means a separate or shared specialized 

13 facility approved by the port director solely for 

14 the examination and release of express consign15 ment shipments; 

16 ‘‘(C) the term ‘ports of entry for de mini17 mis shipments’ means environments where de 

18 minimis shipments are processed, including ex19 press consignment carrier facilities, inter20 national mail facilities, and air cargo facilities; 

21 ‘‘(D) the term ‘violative consumer prod22 ucts’ means consumer products in violation of 

23 an applicable consumer product safety rule 

24 under this Act or any similar rule, regulation, 


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1 standard, or ban under any other Act enforced 

2 by the Commission.’’. 

3 SEC. 3. ADDITIONAL CPSC SURVEILLANCE PERSONNEL AT 

4 KEY PORTS OF ENTRY FOR DE MINIMIS SHIP5 MENTS. 

6 The Commission shall hire, train, and assign not 

7 fewer than 16 full-time equivalent personnel during each 

8 fiscal year and to be stationed at or supporting efforts 

9 at ports of entry, including ports of entry for de minimis 

10 shipments, for the purpose of identifying, assessing, and 

11 addressing shipments of violative consumer products. 

12 Such hiring shall continue during each fiscal year until 

13 the total number of full-time equivalent personnel equals 

14 and sustains the staffing requirements identified in the re15 port to Congress required under section 4. 

16 SEC. 4. REPORT TO CONGRESS. 

17 (a) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 18 months after 

18 the date of enactment of this Act, the Commission shall 

19 transmit to the Committee on Energy and Commerce of 

20 the House of Representatives and the Committee on Com21 merce, Science, and Transportation of the Senate, and 

22 make publicly available, a study and report assessing the 

23 risk to consumers associated with the targeting and 

24 screening of de minimis e-commerce shipments. 


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1 (b) REPORT REQUIREMENTS.—In the study and re2 port, the Commission shall— 

3 (1) examine a sampling of de minimis ship4 ments at a sufficient and representative sample of 

5 all types of ports of entry where de minimis ship6 ments are processed, including express consignment 

7 carrier facilities, international mail facilities, and air 

8 cargo facilities to assess the extent to which such 

9 shipments include violative consumer products; 

10 (2) examine a sampling of shipments coming 

11 from the People’s Republic of China to identify 

12 trends associated with the shipment of products con13 taining both intellectual property rights infringe14 ments and consumer product safety violations; 

15 (3) detail plans and timelines to effectively ad16 dress targeting and screening of de minimis ship17 ments to prevent the entry of violative consumer 

18 products entering into the commerce of the United 

19 States taking into consideration projected growth in 

20 e-commerce; 

21 (4) establish metrics by which to evaluate the 

22 effectiveness of the Commission efforts to reduce the 

23 number of de minimis shipments containing violative 

24 consumer products from entering into the commerce 

25 of the United States; and 


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1 (5) assess projected technology and resources, 

2 including staffing requirements necessary to imple3 ment such plans. 

4 SEC. 5. DEFINITIONS. 

5 In this Act— 

6 (1) the term ‘‘Commission’’ means the Con7 sumer Product Safety Commission; 

8 (2) the term ‘‘de minimis shipments’’ means ar9 ticles containing consumer products entering the 

10 United States under the de minimis value exemption 

11 in 19 U.S.C. 1321(a)(2)(C); 

12 (3) the term ‘‘ports of entry for de minimis 

13 shipments’’ means environments where de minimis 

14 shipments are processed, including express consign15 ment carrier facilities, international mail facilities, 

16 and air cargo facilities; 

17 (4) the term ‘‘violative consumer products’’ 

18 means consumer products in violation of an applica19 ble consumer product safety rule under the Con20 sumer Product Safety Act or any similar rule, regu21 lation, standard, or ban under any other Act en22 forced by the Commission; 

23 (5) the term ‘‘electronic commerce platform’’ or 

24 ‘‘e-commerce platform’’ means any electronically 

25 accessed platform that includes publicly interactive 


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1 features that allow for arranging the sale, purchase, 

2 payment, or shipping of goods, or that enables a 

3 person other than an operator of such platform to 

4 sell or offer to sell physical goods to consumers lo5 cated in the United States; and 

6 (6) the term ‘‘express consignment carrier facil7 ity’’ means a separate or shared specialized facility 

8 approved by the port director solely for the examina9 tion and release of express consignment shipments. 

10 SEC. 6. SAVINGS CLAUSE. 

11 Nothing in this Act shall be construed to limit, affect, 

12 or conflict with any other authority of the Commission or 

13 any other statutory requirements governing the Commis14 sion. 

Passed the House of Representatives September 29, 

2020. 

Attest: CHERYL L. JOHNSON, 

Clerk. 


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