I spent most of early February on pause. As soon as my pause ended, however, I headed to Washington, DC, to continue conversations with legislative staffers about issues associated with HR 5786: The Safe Cosmetics Act of 2010. While that piece of legislation is not now actively being considered, last month, I was contacted by staffers in Rep. Edwin Markey's (D-Ma) office, who wanted to discuss the legislation.
This past Tuesday, along with representatives of the Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild, I met with staffers in Rep. Markey's office and in Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-Il) office. The conversation was wide-ranging, covering topics such as cosmetics company registration, testing, a small business exemption and other provisions contained in HR 5786. It seems likely that new legislation will be introduced in the future, and I am excited that the staffers reached out to us. Discussions will continue as the issues unfold and I will share relevant updates.
If the topic of HR 5786 and new cosmetics legislation is new to you, you can come up to speed by reading some of the posts in the Advocacy Category of this blog. Current cosmetics laws and FDA's cosmetics rules and regulations are available at the FDA's website.
Question: What would you like legislators to know about the value of your small business — cosmetics or otherwise?
