Cloud: Fisher-Price, Mattel Must Answer for Infant Deaths

Calls on Oversight Committee to Hold Hearings on Border, COVID-19 Origins, and More

WASHINGTON—Subcommittee on Economic and Consumer Policy Ranking Member Michael Cloud (R-Texas) opened today’s hearing on the dangers of the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play—an infant recliner that was recalled in April 2019—and the failures of infant product safety by emphasizing the need for Fischer-Price and Mattel to answer for the deaths of infants due to their product, and any potential negligence on their part in producing a product that resulted in deaths.

Subcommittee Ranking Member Cloud also emphasized that while this is a critical issue for the federal government to evaluate, the judicial branch is better suited for remediation at this point in order to potentially compensate the victims’ families. Cloud also called upon the committee to direct their attention to issues in substantial need of the Committee’s oversight, like addressing the border crisis, the origins of COVID-19, rural broadband, ANTIFA violence, and more.

The remarks as prepared are below.

The remarks as prepared are below.

Appearing before us today are two of the top executives from Fisher-Price and its parent company, Mattel, who will speak to a product that has been the focus of an ongoing investigation by this Committee since 2019.

The Rock ‘n Play sleeper is a product that seems to have prioritized profits over the safety of the most vulnerable: Newborns and infants.

I hope they will convince us that this is, in fact, not the case.

Overwhelmingly, it appears the use of inclined sleepers is not safe for unattended infant sleep, and the questions this Committee faces are: 1) Whether Fisher-Price knew the risks to infants when first marketing the product; 2) Whether it made attempts to change its strategy upon learning its product contributed to the deaths of over two dozen infants; and 3) Whether legislative changes need to be made to bolster consumer protection laws so such tragedies are not repeated.

Last week, the Consumer Product Safety Commission deemed inclined sleepers to be unsafe for use for infants.

From our own investigation, it appears Fisher-Price either failed to conduct or simply ignored research that would indicate from the outset that marketing a product such as the Rock ‘n Play sleeper as an appropriate place for infants to sleep was ill-conceived and dangerous.

Fisher-Price consulted with a single physician who has since been prohibited from practicing medicine.

No pediatricians were consulted about the creation of this product, and it is difficult to come up with a legitimate reason for why that was.

What is the reason Fisher-Price could have for not bringing in a wide range of medical expertise and experience?

Additionally, alarm bells were not set off inside Fisher-Price when its development team first learned children had died using their product, and there was no mechanism in place to investigate.

Dozens of children have died in connection with the Rock ‘n Play sleeper, and if Fisher-Price was negligent or reckless in its marketing, it should have to pay heavily for the loss of life it caused.

But I do think it’s important to bring up that no amount of compensation can account for the loss of a child, but the use of this Committee as opposed to the courts, which are better suited at delivering a specific remedy to the victims and assigning specific punishment to bad acting companies, should be considered as well. If we are looking at product safety as a policy, we should expand the scope of this hearing to include other products so we can make a broad-based legislative policy.

There are a hundred other things affecting the lives of thousands of Americans that they are waiting for this Committee to address as well.

For comparison, last Congress, this Committee held hearings on Unaccompanied Minors at our Southern Border, the stockpiling and distributing of PPE, the Trump Administration’s response to COVID-19, the Trump Administration’s Afghanistan strategy, the Syria policy.

We discussed contracting for the response to rapidly building respirators and had a hearing criticizing Operations Warped Speed effort, which brought us the vaccine.

It would be one thing if these issues had already been resolved, but the border crisis is worse than ever and we have more children in custody than ever before.

Progress on peace in the Middle East has been reversed.

Revelations coming out about the origin of the COVID-19 are worth looking at by this Committee.

This committee has held no hearings on the awarding of a half a billion-dollar contract to Family Endeavors, a company run by a former Biden transition official.

This committee has held no hearings on our southwest border, which saw over 100k apprehensions in February, 173k in March, and 178k in April, with seemingly no end in sight.

This committee has not requested Dr. Anthony Fauci or anyone at NIH or the CDC to come testify on the origins COVID-19 in spite of new revelations.

We’ve not held a hearing on the ongoing Antifa violence in Portland.

We have not held a hearing on why there was such a rush to cover up those who discussed different contrasting ideas and theories regarding COVID-19 both in the government and in the media.

This committee has not held a hearing on China, big tech, rural broadband, or any other important bipartisan topics that affect the daily lives of Americans.

These issues address real issues to the security of our nation and affect the lives of many thousands in our nation. This is an important hearing, and I’m thankful we are taking it up. I look forward to asking questions today, and I hope the witnesses are able to provide some explanation for what appears to be a horrible tragedy that their companies had the power to prevent.