...uncertainty has allowed trial lawyers to go after manufacturers and anyone associated with them, from suppliers to retailers. This is typical of the federal government's inability to exert leadership and make a decision.
Tom Schatz, President, CAGW

Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) is criticizing the federal government for not setting a federal flammability standard for upholstered furniture. CAGW wants feds to pull the trigger on the regulatory process that has stretched on for more than a decade. The CPSC approved mattress flammability standards in 2006 that will become effective in 2007 (see story).

In 1993, the National Association of State Fire Marshals petitioned the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to issue a mandatory federal standard covering upholstered furniture flammability.

The group claims upholstered furniture is the leading cause of residential fires and resulting deaths. California developed its own standards for flammability in 1975. However, furniture manufacturers are reluctant to adopt California's standards out of concern that it would be trumped by a federal regulation. For years, manufacturers have been assured that a national standard is just around the corner. Twelve years later, there is still no federal standard. This uncertainty has allowed trial lawyers to go after manufacturers and anyone associated with them, from suppliers to retailers.

"This is typical of the federal government's inability to exert leadership and make a decision," CAGW President Tom Schatz.

On August 2, CAGW wrote Acting Chairman Nancy Nord asking why there was a 12-year delay in promulgating a federal flammability standard for upholstered furniture. In its reply to CAGW, the agency stated that the upholstered furniture industry has been unable to reach a consensus.

According to 2004 testimony by the American Furniture Manufacturers Association before the Senate Commerce, Science, & Transportation Committee, the industry had agreed to a framework for flammability requirements for furniture. More than two years after this consensus was reached, there is still no federal standard to make upholstery furniture fire-resistant.

"CPSC couldn't answer any of four simple questions, except to say it was hard work to develop a standard. Millions of dollars continue to be wasted and lives lost because the CPSC can't do its job," Schatz concluded. "A federal flammability standard is necessary to prevent these losses."