The old saying is that the legislative process is like making sausage - it’s messy and you don’t want to see how it’s done. The CSPCA youth OHV lead ban is a stellar example of some bad sausage.

First, start with basic, reasonable position: America doesn’t want babies ingesting lead.

There’s no debating the fact really. America certainly doesn’t want its newborns getting sick from toys made in China. And there was valid cause for the near hysteria a couple years past. The spate of toy recalls was almost laughable at times. Remember the Chinese-made Aqua Dots, recalled for containing a chemical that when ingested actually metabolized into GHB, a potent date rape drug!

The public reaction was: Why isn’t our government doing something about this?! Ban Chinese toys! Pass legislation, and pass it now!

And Congress acted with unusual swiftness, passing the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. In fact, Congress didn’t just pass it, they rammed it through with a near unanimous vote and then sent it to the White House where it was promptly signed by then President Bush. Yes, it’s true, No-Bama paranoia experts, the Democrats and Republicans share the blame on this one!

Then the true grinding efficiency of governmental bureaucracy got its inflexible hands on the CPSIA. Suddenly the rules didn’t just ban dangerous Chinese toys, now children’s books and completely unrelated child products were under the gun, including all OHVs designed for kids under the age of 12. In the legalistic hamstrung world of bean-counting regulation, CPSC chair Nancy Nord (Bush appointee) may indeed be following the letter of the law. In the spirit of the law, however, the application of the CPSCI was flawed.

So… Americans went from not wanting babies to get sick sucking on lead-tainted Chinese toys to parents being forbidden from purchasing OHV for their pre-teen kids?

Some rather messy sausage making.

Inflexible in their attitude toward giving the OHV industry an outright exemption, the CPSC has since offered some relief to the industry by delaying CPSIA enforcement for another year. But the long-term solution has not yet been reached. Barring a change in the CPSC leadership, it appears that Congress will have to intervene, once again. Legislation is already being drafted. (AMA Urges Congress to End OHV Lead Ban) 

Time to make some more sausage…