It is with great sadness that I am speaking to you all today. That said, I do appreciate the opportunity to speak and the chance to thank Linda Ginzel and Boaz Keysar, Kids In Danger (KID), and Nancy Cowles for everything they have done for child safety. The world is a vastly safer place for babies and children thanks to you all.

I first met Nancy while working on the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) as a member of the Senate Commerce Committee staff. I was relatively new to the product safety world, while Nancy was already a fiery advocate working to build bipartisan support for the Danny Keysar Product Safety Notification Act and the CPSIA.   

By then KID was already a strong force for change on product safety. Boaz and Linda had taken their own tragedy and built an organization dedicated to saving other children from hazards by improving the safety of baby products. They were responsible for changes to Illinois and Michigan law before taking the children’s product safety fight national. 

In 2001, Nancy was hired as Executive Director. The same year, Representative Jan Schakowsky introduced federal legislation that would require independent testing of juvenile products. These were important milestones not just for KID but also foreshadowed how their work would change the future of juvenile product safety.

Only a few years later, KID – and Nancy – were instrumental in passage of the CPSIA. In particular, they were the driving force behind the development of Section 104, which established the mandates on the durable infant products that they had been working towards since KID was founded. 

Think about that for a second. Until KID and Nancy stepped in, the CPSC was not required to issue mandatory safety standards for baby products. Thanks to their efforts, Congress gave us streamlined rulemaking authority and CPSC has adopted mandatory standards for cribs, bassinets, highchairs, nursing pillows, and of course play yards like the one that took Danny’s life. 

Over the last 15 years as CPSC has implemented the requirements of CPSIA, KID has been there every step of the way: filing comments and making sure that the rules set as high a bar for safety as possible.

But KID hasn’t just worked on mandatory safety standards. 

KID – through Nancy and later Dev Gowda – have dedicated themselves to working through the voluntary standards process to improve the safety of a wide range of children’s products. This process has traditionally been run by industry, but KID brought an important consumer voice to the table. 

KID also worked to focus industry on improving safety at the design phase. Under Nancy’s leadership, KID produced a “kid safety toolkit” for product engineers that is world-class. 

And Nancy partnered with high school and college STEM programs to incorporate safety into their curricula – and to train future product safety experts.

Whether it was mentoring parents who lost children in incidents involving consumer products, educating Members of Congress and congressional staff on the history of the CPSIA, or tirelessly advocating for the safest children’s product performance standards, KID’s presence has been a constant voice for progress.

KID has always kept a close eye on CPSC and has held us to the highest standards as public servants: 

• Questioning whether the recall remedies we negotiated for consumers were good enough to address the safety hazards presented; 
• Obtaining documents through FOIA requests to better understand the data we collect;
• Testifying at the agency’s annual priorities hearing; and 
• Issuing reports highlighting areas for improvement. 

KID and Nancy worked for decades on behalf of Danny and the so many children whose lives were cut short due to product safety hazards. Those tragedies grounded KID’s purpose and reinforced their commitment to ensuring that no other child or parent would suffer because of product hazards.

The closing of KID will leave a large hole in the product safety community. I fear that we at the CPSC will not be pushed as hard as we should be and that voluntary standards groups will not be as vigilantly reminded of the children who will be impacted by their decisions. I know that others will step up and many of those people are in this room tonight. But that does not diminish the loss that we all will feel. 

Nancy, on behalf of the CPSC and our professional staff – many of whom have worked closely with you for years – thank you for your dedication to this cause. 

Linda and Boaz, thank you for establishing and supporting this work for so many years. Your organization and your leadership will be missed, but the work you’ve done will have a lasting impact on families, literally around the world.