I am disguested with the outcome of the Senate bill to regulate the door to door sales industry. The bill, sponsored by Sen. Herb Kohl, D-Wis. is a waste of taxpayers' money and will do nothing to protect children.

In fact if passed it will do more harm than good. A bill that only addresses the age at which a young person is allowed to work for one of these crews does not address the problems and issues that cloud this industry. The fact is that less than 2 percent of the workers are actually under 18 years of age, according to Parent Watch, an organization that tracks this industry.

Passing this bill will not stop the clearinghouses and individual sales crew recruiters and crew chiefs from continuing to hire children under age. They have done this for years and will continue to do so. Remember, there are no background checks when they hire young people. The recruiters are ruthless and are not in the business of child safety. They are in the business of child exploitation and making money for themselves and the clearinghouses.

Because of the clampdown on telemarketing, there is even more pressure on the direct sale. The publishers have used telemarketing in the past to procure magazine subscriptions and now face an economic depletion in this part of their industry. Added to this is the sad fact that if a gutted bill like Senate bill S.2549 takes effect, it will allow the legislators to temporarily wash their hands of the problems that face this industry.

The legislators, driven by the Magazine Publishers of America and the trade group National Field Selling Association, are more than reluctant to alter the federal labor laws. In part this is due to the lobbying and in part because of our current economic recession. Passing this lame legislation will hamper further attempts at more powerful regulation until the administration changes hands. This would be a serious blow to our efforts to protect young people and regulate this industry.

The problems that face this industry, and the reasons why we need well developed federal and state legislation and regulation to protect the rights of our children can be directly related to the current sweatshop conditions that exist in this country and all across the world. We are dealing with powerful multi-billion dollar companies that daily exploit children and young adults for a profit.

With the door to door sales industry this becomes a double-edged sword. On one hand, we are confronted with providing rights and safety standards to the thousands of kids that are exploited by the door to door sales industry, while on the other hand we are faced with a drastic rise in public violence.

Many of the workers hired into this industry are dangerous individuals with criminal backgrounds. Because there are no background checks, you and I and our neighbor across the street are all in danger of being raped, murdered or burglarized.

The Senate bill addresses none of these problems, and without a meaningful piece of federal legislation to curb this continuing trend we are all in harm's way.

Ellenbecker is from Verona. His daughter Malinda Turvey, was one of the seven young people killed in the 1999 crash near Janesville of a speeding van carrying a magazine sales crew. That crash helped to prompt the Senate and House to consider legislation to regulate the sales crew industry. The Senate bill to which Ellenbecker refers was passed earlier this month.

Ellenbecker started a Web site devoted to monitoring the industry at www.travelingsalescrews.info.