00:00The gentleman yields back. The distinguished lady from the Empire State, Ms. Clark, is recognized.
00:05Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I thank our Ranking Member Czajkowski for holding this
00:10very important hearing today. I also want to thank all of our commissioners for being here
00:14to testify. And let me also thank our commissioners, led by Chair Hohen Sarek,
00:21for the important work that you all do to protect the American consumer's safety from
00:28defective and dangerous products. A modern, increasingly complex economy like ours can be
00:35a marvel of productivity, producing new technological advances and products that
00:40make the lives of everyday citizens easier, and that innovative spirit must be protected.
00:48At the same time, we must embrace realities of the 21st century environment we live in,
00:53and the current budget proposed for CPSC certainly does not recognize that reality,
01:01as the proposed 6% cut would be disastrous for the Commission and consumers alike.
01:08Unfortunately, our increasingly digital lives can create openings for bad actors to operate
01:14with impunity, and the CPSC stands as our vanguard against that kind of behavior.
01:22A significant cut of this nature would necessitate significant staffing cuts to the CPSC
01:29at a time when e-commerce is flourishing, is growing exponentially, making it easier than ever
01:36for bad and negligent actors to flood our markets with defective products in pursuit of a quick buck.
01:43And this can have major consequences for millions of people. For example, in New York City,
01:50e-mobility solutions like e-bikes and scooters fuel a robust food delivery industry and are
01:58becoming increasingly popular alternatives to automobile traffic, something that should be
02:04viewed as a positive development in our efforts to reduce carbon emissions. Unfortunately,
02:11due to a flood of faulty lithium-ion batteries, New York City has seen a significant uptick
02:18in fire as a result of these batteries. I was proud to partner with Congressman Richie Torres
02:24and a bipartisan group of New York members on H.R. 1797, the Setting Consumer Standards for
02:30Lithium-ion Batteries Act, which would address these faulty batteries and codify common sense
02:36standards. And while that legislation has moved through this committee and passed the House,
02:40it is unfortunately stalled in the Senate as of now. Chair Cohen-Saric, can you speak to how H.R.
02:491797 would help to combat this spate of fires in New York and other jurisdictions across the
02:56country? And could you also speak more broadly to the challenges posed by the rising utilization of
03:03e-commerce platforms and how the proposed budget cuts might exacerbate those challenges?
03:09And other commissioners are invited to chime in as well. Thank you for the question. The
03:14legislation that you put forward is extremely important. It would cut through the lengthy
03:21process that we often have to go through when we are regulating under our organic statute.
03:27As you pointed out, we have seen nearly 300 fires in the last three years associated with lithium-ion
03:34batteries. And while it hasn't had a dramatic impact on New York, it's hit 40 states. So it is
03:41not just a New York problem. It is one we're seeing across the country as well. And your
03:47legislation would be able to speed the process to getting safe laws because, as you said, a lot of
03:52the batteries that we're seeing are cheaply made knockoffs from overseas coming in from countries
03:59like China. And when those are put with a bike that is a good bike, it can result in fires.
04:06Generally speaking, as you said, the asking about the cuts, the cuts will
04:10dramatically impact us. And as we're looking at the e-commerce side of things, making sure that
04:15we're able to stop those imports coming into the country will become so much harder with fewer
04:22people at the ports, fewer compliance officers, fewer ways to be able to stop the import of those
04:28bad products. Just in closing, because I don't have much time left, I would love to get the rest
04:35of your comments, say that we have to take a real forward look at where we are in our civil society
04:42with respect to the way we consume goods and products. And there's no doubt in my mind, just
04:48looking at certain platforms of e-commerce, we don't even know who these companies are. We're
04:53just buying these items only to find out once we receive them that they can harm us, our families,
05:00our children. And I think that this committee has a responsibility to catch up with the times. This
05:06is the 21st century. We're not going back to the way things used to be. We have to look at how
05:12things are and how they'll be in the future. And you're on the front lines of that. So let me thank
05:16each and every one of you for working under such challenging circumstances. The staffing you need
05:22to be put in place now so that our children and grandchildren are protected and they inherit from
05:27us a more robust board. And you're doing the good work. Thank you. I yield back.
05:34I thank the gentlelady. And I also want to thank the gentlelady from Florida for filling in for me,
05:40but I didn't want her to get too comfortable. All right, folks, next we have the gentlelady
05:48from Arizona, Ms. Latimer.
