On April 20th, Senators Diane Feinstein (CA) and Susan Collins (ME) introduced S. 1014, The Personal Care Products Safety Act. The bill was drafted to update The Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act of 1938 and was intending to give the FDA more funding and oversight over the cosmetic industry.
As many of you know, the HSCG has been involved in legislative advocacy at the Federal level since 2008, when it first became known that Congress was interested in updating the current regulations that govern the cosmetic industry. Since 2010, our association has been under contract with a DC Advocate who acts on our behalf and with us to represent the interests of the handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry. We frequently attend meetings with members of Congress to raise awareness about the HSCG, the industry and the businesses that make it up. At every meeting we try to share samples of handcrafted soap and cosmetics.
In the fall of 2014, we became aware that Senator Feinstein (D-CA) was interested in introducing a bill aimed at updating current cosmetic regulations. We subsequently had numerous in person and phone meetings with staff from both Senators Feinstein and Collins offices to go over the bill language and to provide information on the handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry.
Chairman Vitter sends “Dear Colleague” letter
We have had numerous meetings with the Chair of the Senate Small Business Committee. Chairman Vitter felt so strongly about our issues that he wrote a “Dear Colleague” letter which was sent to the HELP Committee Chairmen, Lamar Alexander and Ranking Member, Patty Murray, as well as to the bill sponsors, Senator Feinstein and Senator Collins. The text of this letter is below (or you can view it here):
Dear Chairman Alexander, Ranking Member Murray, Sen. Feinstein, and Sen. Collins:
While I applaud efforts to update The Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act of 1938 to protect consumers and streamline industry compliance, I am concerned that the Personal Care Products Safety Act (S. 1014) does not contain adequate small business protections and would redefine the definition of small businesses unfavorably. This would negatively affect a handmade cosmetic industry comprised largely of women-owned microbusinesses with 1-3 employees. As chairman of the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, I have the responsibility to ensure that we do not saddle small businesses with unnecessary regulations and requirements that could make an already-challenging regulatory environment even more burdensome.
My primary concern is that the legislation would require every business with more than $100,000 in gross annual sales to register their facility and report their ingredientsto the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The “facilities” specified in the bill are often in the owner’s personal residence. In addition, businesses with more than $500,000 in gross annual sales would be required to pay the FDA an annual user fee. Both of these requirements are overly burdensome to the approximately 250,000 small business enterprisesthat operate in this market space and employ more than 700,000 people, including 4,081 businesses in Louisiana and 24,593 businesses in California, for example. These small businesses rely on the ability to change and make custom formulationsto stay competitive. Given the great number of small handcrafted cosmetic manufacturers in the United States, this legislation would cause disproportionate harm to the class with less than one percent of the cosmetic market share. Finally, under Section 3 of the Small Business Act, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is tasked with using its expertise and the best available data to establish business size standards that reflect the differing characteristics of various industries and to consider other factors deemed relevant by the Administrator. Under the most recent SBA size standard guidelines, manufacturers of soap and other detergents are defined as those businesses containing 1,000 or fewer employees. This bill would create ill advised, arbitrary definitions that would cause confusion and harm to small business owners.
For the above-referenced reasons, I oppose this legislation in its current form, and would need to see substantial modifications and improvements to the relevant provisions before agreeing to support it. Thank you for your consideration.
The handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry in the United States is made up of over 300,000 small and emerging businesses in all fifty states. A large portion of these businesses are women-owned and operated and they produce safe soap and cosmetics. The HSCG supports safe cosmetics and helps to educate the membership and the industry n the current regulations governing cosmetics. We feel strongly that any new legislation aimed at updating the current regulations must take into consideration these small and emerging businesses and provide adequate provisions for them to be able to continue to thrive and be assets to their communities and local economies.
Chairman Vitter’s letter and his support of our industry and small businesses is a great stride forward for our legislative advocacy. The HSCG, along with our DC Advocate, Debra Carnahan of Carnahan Global Consulting, will continue to meet with Members of Congress to make them aware of how this legislation, if passed, would adversely affect the small businesses of the handcrafted soap and cosmetic industry.
We will continue to keep you updated on any news; in the meantime, you can visit our page, What We Are Doing, to learn more about the HSCG and advocacy efforts.