Head over to President-Elect Obama’s Change.org site and vote up the “Save Small Business From the CPSIA” Idea for Change. The top 10 ideas get presented to Obama, and currently this one is number 6. Add your vote to make sure this issue stays at the top of the list so it can get the attention it deserves. You’ll need to register if you haven’t already, but it is very quick and easy. (And after you vote, check out the other proposals and vote for the ones closest to your heart.)
Thank you to The Handmade Toy Alliance for getting the proposal up there and providing excellent support to those wishing to change the CPSIA to accommodate small business owners. Here’s their concise summary of the effect of this law:
The CPSIA simply forgot to exclude the class of children’s goods that have earned and kept the public’s trust: Toys, clothes, and accessories made in the US, Canada, and Europe. The result, unless the law is modified, is that handmade children’s products will no longer be legal in the US. If this law had been applied to the food industry, every farmers market in the country would be forced to close while Kraft and Dole prospered.