Washington ? After a year in which American parents discovered Elmo was tainted with lead and one of this season’s most sought-after toys was laced with a coma-inducing chemical, Congress is going home this week without reforming the nation’s consumer product safety system.

The House passed legislation Wednesday that would ban lead from children’s products, require toy testing by independent labs and boost funding for the Consumer Product Safety Commission over the next several years. But the Senate left without taking up that bill or a version passed by a Senate committee in October.

On Tuesday, Congress approved two far more limited measures affecting the agency as part of a larger spending bill. It passed $80 million for the 2008 fiscal year budget for the CPSC and a ban on industry-sponsored travel for commissioners and staff.

The budget is $17 million more than the agency received for fiscal year 2007 and is the CPSC’s largest funding increase in more than 30 years. The money will go toward additional staff and improvements to its testing facilities.

The delay comes as a disappointment to the bill’s supporters in Congress, consumer advocates and the toy industry, which were hoping to get reforms passed by Christmas.

The bill’s sponsors hope to cut a deal with the White House and Senate Republicans by the time Congress returns in late January.