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Legislative Advocacy
The Handcrafted Soapmakers Guild (HSMG) is a non-profit trade association for soapmakers, small businesses hand making soaps and the handmade soap making industry as a whole. Depending on the formulation and/or claims, handmade soaps can be regulated by the FDA or CPSC. The HSMG works to provide legislative advocacy for all soapmakers at both the state and federal level.
See what we're doing.
Position Statement
The following principles outline the HSMG policy positions:
- Supports small businesses manufacturing safe soap and safe cosmetics.
- Supports current cosmetic regulations for the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act as a means of providing consumers with safe cosmetics.
- Supports the current soap exemption as defined in the current cosmetic regulations for the Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act.
- Supports all manufacturers having affordable and sufficient product & liability insurance.
- Supports small business manufacturers having access to up to date information and education.
- Supports positive advocacy strategies and communication as a means to affect change.
- Opposes new regulations which would be overly burdensome or costly to small business while not significantly increasing consumer safety.
Working in Washington DC
Legislation was introduced in 2008, 2009 and 2010 which could have been extremely damaging to the handcrafted soap industry. In September 2010, the HSMG entered into a year-long contract with a Washington DC firm to provide us with professional advocate representation to help us prepare to meet and address any future legislation. Since that time we worked hard to make our industry known and become recognized stakeholders in matters concerning the handcrafted soap industry.
On June 24th, 2011, the Safe Cosmetics Act of 2011 was introduced and, as a result of all the work done earlier, we DO have a seat at the negotiations table - our voice IS being heard. We have been able to establish a working relationship with the sponsors, who have been listening to and addressing our concerns.
Advocating for the Industry
We will continue working on behalf of the handcrafted soap industry and the thousands of individuals and small businesses within it. Watch these pages, the Legislation category of the HSMG Blog and follow us on Facebook for further updates.