i have met with senator bill nelson. iaanderstand how concerned he for creating the website so people can write in, and also for the work that they have done with the epa, the centers for disease control to test the chinese drywall. what i'm hearing also is that they haven't concluded what the

problem is in terms of -- it inconclusive interbred environmental test. and we need to work collaboratively on this, and if confirmed, i would like to work with you to draw a resolution to find out what is causing the respiratory and what it was, the type of elements in the gypsum of the chinese product. understand that the counterpart agency in china, the counterpart to the consumer product safety commission is working with the commission to resolve this. and that chinese leaders are very aware of it and trying to address it. but it is a very real problem causing people great hardship physically, as well as damage to their property rendering their homes worthless. and i will assure you that if i am confirmed it will be a top priority 20. >> the only thing i would ask, inez, is that a lot of this is taking place in louisiana and

florida. they have different climate issues in terms of humidity that folks we have in virginia. and i think we are up to 36 states now who have experienced this problem. it's remarkable to me that the testing and finding the cause is taking this long when it's evident from the families, and then again from even consumer product safety counsel staff that you start to have the ill effects literally just being exposed for a few hours. so i would hope that that money would be well spent to expedite this process, and as you go to the additional testing and i can just become the virginia standpoint but i'm sure my other colleagues who have got other different weather conditions simply testing it in florida or louisiana tech humidity issues, we've got humidity on anti-roads and virginia beach but probably not quite as much as they have in certain areas in florida. make sure you have other states involved in those deaths as wow.

>> you, senator. i have spoken to senator pryor about the same issue in arkansas, which probably has similar climate to virginia but it is widespread. and i., like you, don't understand why the best scientists can't come to a conclusion on what is in this drywall. but i will, if confirmed, make sure it gets full attention. and even if we have to use outsourced testing to get to the root of it, we need to find out what is in this drywall making people sick. >> mr. chairman, one thing i said what i. i know what time is a. you heard from both of our colleagues on south carolina. the one thing that inez is famous about is when she gets a hold of a bone she doesn't let go until she figures out an answer. i can't think of a better person on a host of these issues to take them on in this new important role than inez tenenbaum. great to see you. >> thank you.

thank you, chairman. hiking for three reason. everybody is going to inez. i will also. first, is both you and your husband are georgians and we're very proud of that. secondly you are a graduate of university of georgia and we're extra proud of that. but thirdly, i had the privilege of cheering the georgia board of education in the late 1990s when he became superintendent of education in south carolina and watched what you did in south carolina and i want to say anything that senator demint was absolutely correct. you get an absolute marvelous job and demonstrate the kind of attitude summit at the cpsc should have to deal with difficult problems. i really don't have a question. i want to do to endorsements. first, is what senator warner said. this is the chinese drywall situation is one of any number of product problems coming out of china. we obviously can't pass laws that regulate production in china, but we have gateways which are our ports and we have a commerce department and we

have a cpsc. i think somewhere along the line, if you get a chance, a task force of representatives from the ports homeland security, the commerce department could possibly come up with some ideas of a threshold of entry that could give us some degree of protection, or at least send a signal to the world that we are looking at the quality of the products that are coming in. secondly, cosponsored senator demint legislation dealing with the consumer product safety improvement act which i voted for an chairman pryor spent a lot of time on, but it did have a lot of unintended consequences won by way of example i have eight, soon-to-be nine grandchildren. one of my daughters-in-law the mother of three all under five sheers the largest secondhand clothing sale and second heart book swap in the history of mankind, i think. but it raises a ton of money for the church.

when that law passed within weeks they were called by their attorneys and told to cancel both those sales because of the potential effect and legal liability that was put on them as a secondhand seller of a product they neither manufactured nor took any responsibility for. so that does -- we need to look at the unintended consequence of that legislation. i know there's a stay right now and implementation, but i hope you will apply the same due diligence you did in south carolina to that particular subject and try to get it where the unattended consequences are not so onerous for people for whom it was never intended. >> thank you, senator. if i'm confirmed, i will work to resolve many of these issues that are coming back to you and other members of this committee. it is my understanding, and i've read the guidelines, that the cpsc has put on secondhand stores and has asked people in a secondhand stores how things are going. and many of them said we read the guidelines, and are now not

selling herbal nursery products because, unless we know the product has not been recalled. the commission has a website, that it requires us to be even more diligent in informing the public about product recalls so that the secondhand thrift stores aren't always in a quandary about whether or not to sell something. we can work closely with the state consumer-products safety commissions, and if confirmed i will work with them and the attorneys general to educate people about what is required to be recalled and what they can and cannot sell. public education campaign is certainly needed once all of these regulations are in place and at the go forward to implement. and if i'm confirmed i pledge to work with you to do that. >> thank you very much. best of luck to you. >> thank you.

and thank you for being your. >> thank you. senator klobuchar. >> thank you for being here and your family. i also have warm words. i remember being down there twice now to south carolina and were very gracious. i had quite an expense down there at the fish fry that i will never forget and you are certainly a gracious host. thank you very much. you and i have talked already about the toy safety and the children products bill that was so important to me. we had a four year old boy died from swallowing a ledge are. he did know it was led. mom didn't know it would let. when he died, after the lead going into his bloodstream it was tested as 99% lead. it was from china. and that's what i felt so strongly about getting this bill done. i was pleased we got it done and pass on a bipartisan basis. but as i look back on how some of these problems which i feel very deeply in my stately, we have two of the biggest domestic manufacturers of atvs and

minnesota employers and arctic cat. when i look back at it i think, one, it would have been good to have had a more collegial relationship with the agency in terms of working together when these problems came on the scene. and based on what i've heard on your working, i think that will happen. 2, as the legislation was drafted, i think it would have been helpful to work more proactively with the cpsc, and a third thing which we focused on a lot debate is the implementation. the handmade toy line actually got its genesis in minnesota, and jabari answered some questions about working with them, and i just had one atd point and just let you know how important it is in our state, we just this weekend had 1600 atb writers decide to ride in a line to break the guinness book of world records in minnesota to have the longest line of -- i know you're jealous, senator pryor. they wouldn't be doing that in arkansas.

but the question that i specifically have right now because this was much appreciated. i don't think any of the senator's thought that the law was going to be applied this way and that again, you're going to be on a judicious body, deciding. but what's happening right now as of july 12 v. atv and snowmobile, manufactures have to submit to the cpsc a report that lists each component part that is made of metal and is accessible to children, and there may be hundreds of these parts. and a problem for them is they are try to figure out what is accessible because of the cpsc is supposed to issue a final rule on accessibility and what's accessible on august 14. so there is this lack where they are supposed to give all their parts but they don't know what's accessible to august 14. and so what they are trying to get is some kind of an extension so that they can find out what the cpsc defined as accessible before they go through these hundreds of parts that they

list. and i just wondered if you had any thoughts on that in general. you may not want to answer it specifically. >> thank you, senator. and i wanted to add that i read the transcript when the senate -- of the days of the senate debated this law, and know how much this law -- this situation has affected you and your state personally. any keys are, the child swallowed charm of the reeboks shoe. all of these, when i read the transcript made the law to me the very real because, you're right, there are so many people who have died and been injured seriously because we haven't been more vigilant about children's products. under the cps i. a., you granted three exemptions from the lead components. one exemption is the inaccessible parts. to our electronic devices, and

three the commission can exempt children's toy if through normal and foreseeable use or abuse you can document that any lead is not absorbed into the body. and so those are the three areas where a product can be exempt. now, on the state enforcement has been issued on the atvs so that the industry can work to see if less lead is needed without interfering with the structural integrity or what you just brought up though is one of the largest issues facing the chairman, and if i'm confirmed, and all the commissioners. and that his house and we can get clear guidance on all these legends. and this is not unknown to me. when i was elected state superintendent of education, i came into an agency that had been cut, did not have the resources to implement a new law

that the general assembly just bass passed, the education accountability act. and there was confusion in the schools. so what we had to do was take that lockhart, figure out what we needed to do, everyone you know, worked overtime. the policies and procedures in place, and we worked as hard as we could implement. once i found that it was implemented, then the uncertainty died down. industry accepted and we could go on about our way. this is the same situation i'm hearing about now. as soon as we can issue guidance and regulations to help industry interpret this law to better the industry will be and they will comply. >> we appreciate that. and jesse know the atv supported this law. because they had good safety manders. and that's the irony of this, they supported us and it was interpreted in a way that i don't think any senator or anyone expected.

just one last thing if i could, mr. chairman. the virginia grain pool act is something that i also worked hard on after we had a tragedy in minnesota with abigail taylor. and there with senator pryor and others we were able to get that done a few months after this tragedy happened your end it started to be implementing -- intimate all over the country. we worked with the cpsc commissioner. and i just wanted to just say to you we know that cpsc can enforce every vocal all over the country. every public pool, but we also know that the education efforts will be very important here, so if you take a look at that because we have found in our state we have had no incidents because it hit people's hearts are much so the pool operator on going out and making sure things are in better shape. and i think if we can emulate that national and we'll be in much better shape. >> that you, senator. . .@@ mpact and louisiana.

by our estimates, there is up to 7,000 louisianan homes affected and all of those situations are as senator warner described, they are serious health

symptoms, and yet people don't know exactly what the health bottom line is. that there is major damage to the home, corrosion of piping and wiring, which brings up fundamental safety issues with a gas lines and the like. in louisiana it's sort of the crippling tragic because by definition these are folks who were flooded by one of our hurricanes, katrina or rita or gustav or ike. that is why they are ripping out old drywall and putting in this new stuff, so by definition virtually every one of those folks were hard hit by a hurricane or just recovering or finally have put their house back together and then they discovered this and they have to start all over. and their house is a loss, sometimes complete loss yet again.

so it's doubly tragic for folks in that situation. i am certainly continuing to work with senator nelson, senator landrieu and others on legislation and funding, which has thus cpsc studying this issue and has it on a more accelerated timetable to study three things in particular. number when the relationship between the drywall and health sometimes. so what's the bottom line on health, number one. number two, the relationship between the drywall and electrical and fire safety issues. and number three, the tracing of the origin and distribution of the drywall. so i know that's going on. the big issue is timing. even -- even with these funding assurances, even with the study ongoing, the word is it's taking months and months. what can you tell about the

current plan at cpsc with regard to the timing of the study in? >> i understand this committee had a hearing to weeks ago on chinese drywall, and that is the date that the epa came forward and had dave either the results of its test and i am the stand the test was inconclusive, they didn't have a lot to tell you; is that correct, senator? >> that is my understanding, yes. >> i've reviewed the letter commissioner nancy nord wrote to senator bill nelson is also the fact that florida has lost its own investigation to use high performance liquid cannot jersey or lpc. i look at chamber attests and no conclusive report has given what it is that is omitting with the

seóul fer or contaminating the walls. i have access to its information due to the public domain. it's what i get off the website and what briefings i had been given in terms of the briefing book, but i would like if i'm confirmed to meet with the scientists first before i tell you what the time frame is. it is my understanding everyone is still grappling with the science and testing of the drywall. but once we get some information than if i'm confirmed on will come back to you, work with you and we can do a public information campaign to let people know what hazards are and what they're recourses are against companies that sold them dry wall. >> negative understanding is that even with everything that's been done and funding commitments for cpsc to focus on

this immediately is going to be a matter of many months, which strikes me as really frustrating and inadequate. what will you try to do to accelerate that at cpsc? >> well, if i'm confirmed we will have a briefing. all the commissioners will be invited to have a briefing by the staff. the staff will lee of the time lines. i will ask them to come up with time lines if i confirmed to say when are you going to conclude your test and when can we get back to the senate commerce committee and also centers in the house and members from other states affected by the drywall and expedite this as soon as possible. but we will have a briefing and come up with a sketch weld implementation working with you making sure you were fully informed. >> i appreciate that and look forward to following up with regard to that specifics timetable because right now it's on a very frustrating multi

month timetable. mr. chairman, if i could have a couple other questions because this really is important. this is also part of a broader issue obviously with china. and china is clearly the biggest problem worldwide with regard to many products in louisiana another big concern is contaminated seafood. that's not your jurisdiction. i understand that the my plight is it's clearly a pattern with regard to china. what are your thoughts about focusing on this chinese pattern to get some significant new results across the board? >> if i'm confirmed one of the first things i will do is ask for a meeting with their leader of the chinese counterpart at the cpsc which is the administration for quality supervision and quarantine to make clear the importance of china complying with this

standard for consumer product safety. i also want to work with the chairman to see if a delegation would visit china or meet with my counterpart from china if he or she would visit the united states to talk about our work concerns. the cpsc has a memorandum of agreement with china which needs to be reviewed given the large number of imports coming from china we also communicate through the of third-party testing certification under the law passed last year will ensure products coming from china are meeting the standards. that third-party testing will be implemented this year although the laboratories, the tracking labels or required. but third protesting and my understanding will be implemented and before you come to the port you have to have that third-party testing that

can be sent electronically to the ports. the cpsc can work with customs to that certificate is with the extra funds that congress has provided to the cpsc. the commission could increase a number of people at the ports to ensure the third party certificates are correct. it will take monitoring and vigilance on the part of the commission to ensure these third-party laboratories are doing their job correctly and a system for routinely checking on those and going back to ensure these third-party laboratories are not filing false claims or are not doing the work adequately but that whole system would ensure americans the products coming from china don't contain chemicals. >> mr. chairman can i ask one

brief question and ms. tenenbaum, you can give the answer for the record because i don't want to hold everything up. i strongly believe one of the problems is in the past there has not been enough, and work in coordination of all multiple involved agencies like international trade commission customs, u.s. -- ustr in your soon-to-be working for practical result. for instance the chinese drywall, at the end of the day if the only action is some sort of class-action suit against some shell entity in china which is qassam hour of the chinese government that goes and their litigation and takes years and years more that's not a solution. that's not a good result. that's maybe making some lawyers busy, but it's not helping the

victims. really what has to happen is for this to be a priority of the u.s. government including ustr, everybody who deals weekly with china to get a practical resolution and have the victim's reimbursed in a whole and quick way and i just ask for the record your response to that idea and how would you work toward that sort of practical bottom-line result. thank you. >> thank you, symmetric, that is an excellent question and i am glad you brought that up. the cpsc is opening an office in china. the commission needs to coordinate and not duplicate its efforts or use resources if other agencies, if we can pull the resources and get to the same solution. i look forward a fine confirmed to meeting with all of the people who are the heads of these agencies to work out a way we can work together more

closely. thank you. >> thank you. senter cantwell. >> thank you, mr. chairman. ms. tenenbaum, thank you for the meeting in my office last week and we are glad that your nomination is before the committee today. i was wondering if i could ask you about emerging products associated with hazards. in 2007 the commission established a pilot program for an early morning system on the emerging products and association hazard and my understanding is that it uses expert assessment tools to quickly and avoid these issues and proposed protective action. do you know whether this pilot has been successful? >> i don't, senator cantwell. thank you for the question but i don't have information on that. it seems like common sense approach to work with the industry's ahead of time to advise them of the regulation and requirements on consumer

products before they develop these products and put them in the stream of commerce. >> i guess that is why was getting that weather in principle that approach helps the commission to be more productive than completely reactive and should the commission be proactive when it comes to emergence safety issues and consumer products. >> the commission should be proactive. working with industry is so the industry doesn't have inventory that it can't sell where the commission is responding on the back end of recalls the sooner the commission can promulgate regulations and guidance and educate and work with industry, the less costs would be incurred by industry in developing products if leader has to recall. >> several of the unforeseen issues the commission had to address implementing the consumer product safety commission and improvement act involves smaller businesses to read to you think the commission

is well-positioned for conducting now reached a smaller consumer product manufacturers? i know the commission leverage as it staff by using standards committees and organizations like the underwriters lab and ansi but do they leverage with small agencies within the department of commerce like nist and the manufacturing partnership? >> senator, i don't know the specific answer to that because i haven't asked that at the commission, but the commission needs to have a partnership and also the regular meetings with the leaders of the commission's so we don't duplicate resources and that we are all enforcing standards across the board the same. >> okay, another issue, i know i & parties can submit petitions that can ultimately lead to rulemakings and to the best of

my knowledge, those petitions have led to rulemakings and do you have any sense or any thoughts on that, the amount of time that it takes or how the commission does that as it initiates its own for rulemaking before, senator. i don't have firsthand knowledge about that, but under my leadership if i am confirmed i hope the members of the general public industry, consumers, interested parties would feel they could approach the commission and make suggestions and rulemaking. we certainly would invite comment on proposed rules and take those comments very seriously. >> i know there is so much the commission faces and a heavy work load. are there any current activities oru might consider deemphasizing