Now that the Senate and House have both passed their own, substantively different, consumer product safety bills, the real fun begins. Will the bill that emerges from conference discussions look more like the tougher Senate version, or will it resemble the House version, which is preferred by industry and President Bush? It’s no secret that the manufacturing industry worked hard to weaken the Senate bill, succeeding, for example, in getting the maximum fine that the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission can levy knocked down from $100 million to $20 million.

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