On Friday, I was honored to receive the Child Passenger Safety Award from Safe Kids Worldwide, a nonprofit that specializes in working to prevent childhood injuries through increased safety measures, such as booster seat regulation. As a parent myself, I know firsthand the importance of keeping our kids safe, especially because motor vehicle accidents are one of the leading causes of severe injury and death for American children. In fact, 139,042 related injuries occurred in 2020 alone, according to the Department of Transportation. That’s why I’ve led the charge in Congress to address the widespread sale and use of unsafe child booster seats. As Chairman of the Oversight Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy, I led the investigation that revealed that booster seat manufacturers misled parents about the effectiveness of their products in collision testing while also failing to properly label what size children their products could protect, and flat-out skipping safety procedures recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP).
In response to the potentially deadly booster seat safety issues I identified, I introduced the Booster Seat Safety Act to force manufacturers to follow pediatrician-approved guidelines by providing clear and consistent standards for booster seat labeling, testing, and use. Additionally, my bill would require the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to develop side impact testing standards for all booster seats while addressing current safety failures and misleading advertising claims that put kids at risk.
