WASHINGTON –Today, Education and the Workforce Committee Chairwoman Virginia Foxx (R-NC) sent letters to Department of Labor (DOL) Acting Secretary Julie Su, U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) Chair Charlotte Burrows, and National Relations Board (NLRB) General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo as part of the Committee’s investigation into the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) “Workers’ Voice Summit” (Summit). The nature of the closed-door Summit, attended by Biden administration personnel and organized labor leaders, suggests that federal labor agencies, led by OSHA, set policies based on the Summit in a way that favored Big Labor while denying other stakeholders proper consideration.
In the letter to Su, Foxx writes: “Your failure to comply with the subpoena and the Committee’s previous requests is utterly beyond comprehension. This signals a new low for you and for DOL in not respecting Congress’s duty to conduct oversight. … Beyond merely being a Summit for workers to share their concerns with OSHA and to learn more about the agency, this multiday, closed-door, event was another example of the Biden administration mobilizing ‘all of government’ for the specific benefit of organized labor. … It is concerning to the Committee that OSHA would be setting priorities and developing plans without a broader range of stakeholders. Further, the Committee is interested in learning specifically what OSHA did following the Summit to determine its agenda for 2023 and beyond. … [T]he Committee understands that DOL’s policy on ex parte communications obligates DOL to summarize any ex parte contacts and disclose them in the public docket. The Committee is unaware of OSHA or any other agency that participated in the Summit having made public disclosures about ex parte communications that occurred.”
In the letter to Burrows, Foxx writes: “[T]his three-day Summit, which began on September 27, 2022, was far more than an OSHA event focused on worker-oriented stakeholders. It was a closed-door event that included the heads of many of the Biden administration’s most active and influential labor agencies. Notes prepared for OSHA Assistant Secretary Douglas Parker identified you as a participant who made remarks at the Summit. To understand EEOC’s role and your participation in the Summit, the Committee requests…a copy of your remarks…[and] an explanation of when and how you and other EEOC employees participated in the Summit…”
In the letter to Abruzzo, Foxx writes: “As a result of the Committee’s oversight, I have obtained a copy of the Summit’s agenda and a list of organizations that participated. These materials make clear that this three-day Summit, which began on September 27, 2022, was far more than an OSHA event focused on worker-oriented stakeholders. It was a closed-door event that included the heads of many of the Biden administration’s most active and influential labor agencies. …To understand fully the NLRB’s role and your participation in the Summit, the Committee requests that you provide…an explanation of how you or any other NLRB employee’s participation in this event informed further NLRB policy decisions following the event…”
To read the letter to Su, click here.
To read the letter to Burrows, click here.
To read the letter to Abruzzo, click here.
