Senate nears vote on product safety overhaul

By Kevin Drawbaugh

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Senate may vote as soon as next week on a bill to reform product safety regulation after months of recalls of shoddy goods, many of them toys made in China, said a key lawmaker and Senate aides on Thursday.

"We hope that (the Senate bill) will be moving as early as next week, but we're not sure," said Michigan Democratic Rep. John Dingell in a Reuters Regulation Summit interview.

Two Democratic aides in the Senate said later a vote next week is possible and senators are negotiating over a final version of legislation, with a few sticking points remaining.

Dingell chairs the House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee. He steered a House version of product safety reform to floor passage in December by a 407-0 vote.

He declined to speculate on the prospects for a House- Senate compromise, assuming Senate passage of a bill.

"So far we have had great difficulty in having conferences with the Senate ... How that would come about, I have no way of knowing," said Dingell, a member of Congress since 1955.

The House's version of product safety reform would slash lead content in toys and boost funding for the beleaguered Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Product safety grabbed Congress' attention last year amid scores of recalls of products by Mattel Inc (MAT.N: Quote, Profile, Research), RC2 Corp (RCRC.O: Quote, Profile, Research) and other companies due to excessive lead content.