29 1 dition of the bond arising out of such failure to conform or 2 redeliver in accordance with regulations prescribed by the 3 Secretary of the Treasury or his delegate. When asserting 4 5 6 a claim for liquidated damages against an importer for fail ure to redeliver such nonconforming goods, the liquidated damages shall not be less than 10 per centum of the value 7 of the nonconforming merchandise if, within five years prior 8 thereto, the importer has previously been assessed liquidated 9 10 11 12 13 damages for failure to redeliver nonconforming goods in response to a demand from the Secretary of the Treasury as set forth above. (b) If it appears to the Secretary that the consumer product can be brought into compliance with all applicable 14 requirements under this Act, final determination as to ad15 mission of such consumer product may be deferred and, upon 16 filing of timely written application by the owner or consignee 17 and the execution by him of a bond as provided in the pre18 ceding provisions of this section, the Secretary may, in 19 accordance with regulations, authorize the applicant to per20 form such action specified in such authorization (including 21 destruction or export of rejected consumer products or por22 tions thereof, as may be specified in such authorization). All 23 such action pursuant to such authorization shall, in accordance 24 with regulations, be under the supervision of an officer or 30 1 employee of the Department of Health, Education, and Wel2 fare or of the Department of the Treasury. 3 (c) The Secretary of the Treasury shall obtain without. 4 charge and deliver to the Secretary, upon his request, a 5 reasonable number of samples of consumer products being 6 offered for import. The owner or consignee of any such 7 product may have a hearing before the Secretary with respect 8 to admission of such imports into the United States. If, except 9 as provided by subsection (b), it appears from examination 10 or testing of such samples or otherwise that a product fails 11 to comply with the requirements of this Act, such product 12 shall be refused admission, and the Secretary of the Treasury 13 shall cause destruction of such product unless it is exported, 14 under regulations prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury, 15 within ninety days after notice to the importer or consignee. 16 (d) All expenses (including travel, per diem or sub17 sistence, and salaries of officers or employees of the United 18 States) in connection with the destruction provided for in 19 this section, the amount of such expenses to be determined 20 in accordance with regulations of the Secretary of the Treas21 ury, and all expenses in connection with the storage, cart22 age, or labor with respect to any consumer product refused 23 admission under this section, shall be paid by the owner or 24 consignee and, in default of such payment, shall constitute a 25 lien against any future importations made by such owner or 26 consignee. 66-631 0-71-pt. 1 1 2 31 EXPORTS SEC. 18. This Act shall not apply to any consumer 3 product manufactured, sold, or held for sale for export 4 from the United States (or to any consumer product im5 ported for export), if such consumer product, and any con6 tainer in which it is enclosed, bears a stamp or label stating 7 that such consumer product is intended for export and such consumer product is in fact exported from the United States; 9 except that this Act shall apply to any consumer product 10 manufactured for sale, offered for sale, or sold for shipment 11 to any installation of the United States located outside of the 12 United States. 8 13 14 EFFECT ON STATE STANDARDS SEC. 19. (a) No State or political subdivision thereof 15 shall establish or continue in effect, with respect to any 16 consumer product, any standard or similar regulation pre17 scribing requirements applicable to any aspect of health 18 or safety of such consumer product, if such aspect is required 19 to conform to a product safety standard under this Act: 20 Provided, That nothing in this section shall be construed to 21 prevent any State or political subdivision thereof from estab22 lishing or continuing a health or safety requirement appli23 cable to a consumer product for its own use, if such require24 ment imposes a higher standard of health or safety than 32 1 that required to comply with the applicable product safety 2 standard under this Act. 3 (b) The Secretary may, upon application of a State 4 or political subdivision thereof, exempt such State or political 5 subdivision from the limitation of subsection (a) if a standard 6 proposed by such application (1) imposes a higher level 7 of health or safety than the Federal product safety standard 8 with respect to products to be manufactured, sold, held for sale, or used in such State or political subdivision thereof, 10 (2) is required by compelling local conditions, (3) does 11 not unduly burden commerce, and (4) is adopted by such 12 State or political subdivision pursuant to procedures and 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 requirements which in the judgment of the Secretary are substantially comparable to those prescribed for product safety standards under this Act. UTILIZATION OF OTHER FEDERAL AGENCIES SEC. 20. In carrying out his duties under this Act, the Secretary shall, to the maximum practicable extent, utilize the personnel, facilities, and other technical support available in other Federal agencies. B-139310. COMPTROLLER GENERAL OF THE UNITED STATES, Hon. WARREN G. MAGNUSON, Chairman, Committee on Commerce, U.S. Senate. DEAR MR. CHAIRMAN: Your letter of March 8, 1971, requested our comments on S. 983, 92d Congress, entitled: "A bill to protect consumers against unreasonable risk of injury from hazardous products and for other purposes." We have no special information as to the advantages or disadvantages of this measure and, therefore, make no comments regarding its merit. Section 3(h) provides that all Commission employees, other than five specified officers, shall be subject to the provisions of title 5, United States Code governing appointments in the competitive service. The committee may also want to make all Commission employees, other than the five specified ones, specifically subject to the Classification Act, the purpose of which is to provide equal pay for equal work throughout the competitive service. The language making the employees subject to the provisions governing appointments seems to imply that they are not subject to the Classification Act provisions. In addition, we suggest that the committee specify in section 3(h) the Executive level pay scale to which each of the five specified Commission officers is to be entitled. There is no provision now for a limitation on salary that may be paid the five specified Commission officers unless the Civil Service Commission would conclude that they were subject to the Classification Act provisions. Sincerely yours, R. F. KELLER, Acting Comptroller General of the United States. (More agency comments appear on pages 767, and 892-896.) Senator Moss. Senator Stevens, do you have any opening statement? Senator STEVENS. No, I don't, Mr. Chairman. Senator Moss. We are most pleased to have this morning as our leadoff witness the Secretary of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, the Honorable Elliott L. Richardson. He is accompanied by Dr. Charles C. Edwards, Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration, and Mr. Malcolm Jensen, Director of the Bureau of Product Safety, Food and Drug Administration, and Mr. Steve Kurzman, Assistant Secretary of Legislation for HEW. Mrs. Virginia Knauer, Special Assistant to the President for Consumer Affairs, will also appear as a witness with Secretary Richardson. We are pleased, indeed, to have all of you fine people from the administration to testify before this committee on product safety. You may proceed, Mr. Secretary. We are pleased to have you here, sir. STATEMENTS OF HON. ELLIOT L. RICHARDSON, SECRETARY, DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH, EDUCATION, AND WELFARE; AND HON. VIRGINIA KNAUER, SPECIAL ASSISTANT TO THE PRESIDENT FOR CONSUMER AFFAIRS; ACCOMPANIED BY CHARLES C. EDWARDS, COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUG ADMINISTRATION; MALCOLM JENSEN, DIRECTOR, BUREAU OF PRODUCT SAFETY; STEVE KURZMAN, ASSISTANT SECRETARY FOR LEGISLATION; JAMES GRANT, FDA; WILLIAM WALKER, DEPUTY DIRECTOR, OFFICE OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS; JACK PEARCE, DEPUTY GENERAL COUNSEL. OFFICE OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS Secretary RICHARDSON. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman, members of the subcommittee. Accompanying Mrs. Knauer and me, beginning at my left is Mr. Malcolm Jensen, Director of the Bureau of Product Safety of the |