The Seventh 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 presented his bill in a meeting with employees at L’Oreal USA claiming his bill would modernize the Federal Food, Drug & Cosmetic Act with reasonable, science-based reforms to help personal care product companies that are seeking to innovate, create new products and grow their businesses.
Updated federal regulations
“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.
“H.R. 4395 seeks to advance consumer safety and provides a regulatory framework that furthers growth and innovation for American cosmetics manufacturers and small businesses.”
The US-subsidiary of cosmetics firm L’Oreal was quick to back the Congressman as Eric Bone, senior vice president for Research and Innovation at L’Oreal USA, joined Lance in speaking at the event.
“For more than one hundred years, consumer safety has been of paramount importance to L’Oréal,” he said.
“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.”
Proposed job creation
Lance was also given further backing by the Personal Care Products Council, as executive vice president John Hurson commented that the regulatory updates proposed by the New Jersey man 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 Seventh District. Other Seventh District member companies include Procter & Gamble, Johnson & Johnson, among others.