S. 5281, Consumer Protection Rollback. Quorum's AI analysis reads it as a net cost — and names who bears it.
S. 5281 · Net cost
What it does
This bill amends the Consumer Product Safety Act to lower the maximum civil penalty for individual product safety violations from $15 million to $250,000, and removes the $15 million cap on penalties for related series of violations. It also establishes an automatic annual inflation adjustment mechanism for penalties, tied to the Consumer Price Index, that bypasses normal rulemaking procedures.
The analysis names consumer product manufacturers — and 4 more groups — among the beneficiaries.
The cost
The $250,000 cap on individual violations is far below typical corporate profit margins on a single product line, making penalties a minor cost of doing business rather than a meaningful deterrent.
The analysis put a high warning level on this bill. Transparency scores 65%, and the analysis found no provisions unrelated to the bill's subject.
Who is behind it
Filed by Peter Welch. Cosponsored by Ben Luján, Brian Schatz, Ed Markey and Richard Blumenthal.