Laws and Regulations

Congress may soon change the law that is compelling Facebook to go public in early 2012.

Reps. David Schweikert (R-AZ) and Jim Himes (D-CT) are among those who plan to introduce a bill that would amend the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

While some may wish it were so, product safety is not going away.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans 31 regulatory reviews, including how to improve estimates of industry costs, after scrapping a definition of milk as oil that forced farmers to meet petroleum-spill rules.

The EPA's April decision to exclude the dairy industry from rules on oil spills is an example of the kinds of changes the agency seeks, said Cass Sunstein, director of the White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs. The exemption will save farms and milk factories $146 million a year, according to the White House.

President Barack Obama has ordered agencies to eliminate regulations that stifle job creation.

A House subcommittee approved a proposal to roll back the Consumer Product Safety Commission's authority on issues including lead testing and consumer complaints.

Child-care facilities would get more time to replace cribs, stronger lead-content limits would be delayed and businesses would get relief in product testing in proposed changes to a 2008 consumer-protection law crafted by Representative Mary Bono Mack, a California Republican and chairman of the Commerce, Manufacturing and Trade Subcommittee. The legislation would also restrict who may post to a CPSC website that tracks complaints about products.

The proposal next faces a vote in the full Energy and Commerce Committee.

House Democratic leaders unveiled Wednesday the latest version of their "Make It In America" agenda, aimed at creating manufacturing jobs and boosting the economy.

At a Capitol news conference, House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.), the program's architect, joined with more than a dozen members of the House Democratic caucus to announce the agenda, which includes more than 30 pieces of legislation or legislative agenda items.

We have all heard about the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA). And up to now, as distributors, we have been relatively insulated to the developing changes that suppliers have had to follow closely and adapt to be compliant. That is all ending now.

More than four million small businesses nationwide are eligible this year for tax credits created by the Affordable Care Act, which will help companies afford the ever-rising cost of health insurance.

After almost three years of bickering over the law regulating lead in children's products, a comprehensive amendment is finally up for discussion in the House of Representatives. It's about time.

Small business organizations like the Handmade Toy Alliance are set to testify today at a Congressional subcommittee hearing on amending the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA).

On Tuesday, the Senate passed bill H.R. 4, "The Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Overpayment Act," by an 87 to 12 vote. The bill now awaits a signature from President Obama.