The Independent Cosmetic Manufacturers and Distributors (ICMAD) is lobbying for lawmakers to pass legislation that would create uniform national safety standards for cosmetics.

Pam Busiek, ICMAD President and CEO, said, “At ICMAD, safety is the top priority of our companies, and we welcome this important conversation about how to modernize oversight of the cosmetic and personal care industry. Making it as a small business owner in the cosmetics industry — or any industry, for that matter — is an uphill climb with many challenges. The last thing American entrepreneurs and job creators need is unnecessary regulatory burdens or a patchwork of contradictory regulations. That is why we support the Safe Cosmetics Modernization Act, which will modernize FDA regulations and create a national safety standard that ensures consumers get safe, high-quality, innovative cosmetic products.”

ICMAD is working with members of Congress, including Representative Pete Sessions (R-TX), author of the Safe Cosmetics Modernization Act, to modernize and enhance the FDA’s oversight of the cosmetics and personal care industry. The organization took part in a conversation about this at the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on September 22nd.

At the hearing, Curran Dandurand, CEO of Jack Black LLC, testified about her personal experience creating and managing a small business in the cosmetic industry while juggling the patchwork of state safety regulations. Dandurand commented, “For smaller companies like ours that don’t have even a tiny fraction of these resources, the keys to growth are product innovation, product quality and being nimble and highly responsive to our customers.”

Dandurand continued, “It’s absolutely clear that the erosion of a national standard has and will continue to substantially increase the cost of producing and distributing personal care products, with a disproportionate impact on smaller companies. Consequences for the small business owner would be disastrous: many would have to stop doing business in states where they could not afford to comply, others would go out of business altogether and still other businesses would never get started in the first place. If this had been the regulatory landscape 16 years ago when we started Jack Black we would have had a very difficult time getting out of the starting gate, much less becoming successful, and our company and product line would probably not exist today.”