Reese's Law
8/1/2023, 6:00 PMSummary of Bill HR 5313
Bill 117 HR 5313, also known as Reese's Law, is a piece of legislation introduced in the US Congress with the aim of addressing issues related to child safety and protection. The bill is named after Reese Bowman, a young girl who tragically lost her life due to a preventable accident.Reese's Law seeks to improve safety standards for children by requiring all child care facilities to implement certain safety measures. These measures include conducting background checks on all employees, ensuring proper supervision of children at all times, and maintaining a safe and secure environment for children to play and learn in.
Additionally, the bill also aims to increase funding for child care facilities to help them meet these new safety standards. This funding will be used to train staff members on child safety protocols, purchase necessary safety equipment, and make any necessary renovations to ensure the facility is up to code. Overall, Reese's Law is a bipartisan effort to protect children and prevent future tragedies like the one that befell Reese Bowman. By implementing stricter safety standards and providing additional funding for child care facilities, this bill aims to create a safer environment for children to thrive in.
Congressional Summary of HR 5313
Reese's Law
This act requires the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to establish a product safety standard with respect to batteries that pose an ingestion hazard (i.e., button cell or coin batteries) and consumer products containing the batteries.
Specifically, the batteries and consumer products with these batteries must include a warning label that clearly identifies the hazard of ingestion and instructs consumers to keep the batteries out of the reach of children, seek immediate medical attention if a battery is ingested, and follow any other consensus medical advice. Consumer products containing the batteries must also include a battery compartment that eliminates or adequately reduces the risk of injury from battery ingestion by children who are six years of age or younger.
Additionally, such batteries, if sold separately or included separately with a product, must comply with federal child-resistant packaging regulations.
The act exempts from these requirements (1) toy products that are in compliance with certain existing battery accessibility and labeling requirements, and (2) batteries that are in compliance with the marking and packaging provisions of the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) Safety Standard for Portable Lithium Primary Cells and Batteries.
The act also provides for compliance with the requirements by relying on a voluntary standard that is approved by the CPSC before it establishes the standard required by this act.
