Lance Authors Cosmetics Safety Bill

Congressman Leonard Lance (NJ-07) visited L'Oreal USA in Clark this week to  announce he has authored H.R. 4395, the “Cosmetic Safety Amendments Act of 2012.” The 7th District lawmaker, who serves on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee, said his bill would help spur innovation and industry growth by updating current federal regulations for the cosmetics and personal care industry.

Lance explained that the new legislation would make the following key improvements to current laws: it would create a new FDA ingredient review process, provide mandatory FDA regulation, provide new FDA oversight over ingredient review expert panel findings, provide FDA issued good manufacturing practices and – most importantly – create a national, uniform standard for cosmetic ingredient safety.

Woodbridge is part of the 7th District served by Lance.

“Given the current state of the American economy, what we need right now are updated federal regulations based on sound science to help, not hurt job creation,” said Lance. "The main idea behind a national standard is that the FDA sets certain safety agreements. Presently, companies have to formulate different products for different states and that is more expensive and does not lead to a uniform standard nationally. Particularly smaller companies don’t have the ability to do that. I believe funds should be spent for innovation."

As part of the event, Lance and Eric Bone, Senior Vice President for Research & Innovation at L’Oréal USA, addressed employees regarding the legislation and briefly toured the facilities.

“For more than one hundred years, consumer safety has been of paramount importance to L’Oréal. Congressman Lance’s legislation will provide the FDA with a more modern framework for oversight of the growing global cosmetics market, new safety assurances for consumers and greater regulatory certainty for manufacturers to innovate and develop new personal care products that meet consumers’ needs,” said Eric Bone, Senior Vice President Research & Innovation, L’Oréal USA.

Additionally, John Hurson, Executive Vice President of Government Affairs at the Personal Care Products Council, said the regulatory updates proposed by Lance would help job creation in the personal care product industry.

According to the Personal Care Products Council, the cosmetic and personal care products industry accounts for more than 175,820 jobs in New Jersey and 8.2 million jobs nationally. This includes manufacturers, distributors and also licensed beauty professionals, direct sellers and nail salon workers.  

L’Oreal USA has more than 2,500 full-time employees in the state of New Jersey, 1,385 of which are located in the 7th District. Other companies in the congressional district include Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, among others.