Today, Education and Labor Committee Workforce Leaders Reps. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) and Fred Keller (R-PA) sent a letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Al Stewart requesting the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) give businesses and workers the formal opportunity to provide input before the Biden administration issues a burdensome and unnecessary Emergency Temporary Standard (ETS) on COVID-19. The letter also asks OSHA to provide additional information about the rationale for issuing such a regulatory mandate, including its impact on small businesses.
In the letter, the Members write: "We are concerned that nearly a year into the pandemic, and with the deployment of effective vaccines currently underway around the country, the Biden administration is considering implementing sweeping new employer mandates in the form of an ETS and permanent rule related to COVID-19 and other infectious diseases." The Members continue: "Before rushing to mandate a new, top-down federal regulation a full year into the pandemic, OSHA should diligently solicit feedback from business owners and their employees."
BACKGROUND: Businesses and workers have been taking comprehensive and effective precautions throughout the pandemic to keep their workplaces safe. Imposing a rigid, rushed, far-reaching, and one-size-fits-all COVID-19 OSHA regulation in every workplace in America would tie the hands of employers, forcing them to follow a federal standard that would quickly be outdated, resulting in more uncertainty for business owners and no improvement in workplace safety and health.
To read the full letter to Acting Secretary of Labor Stewart, click here.
