E&W Blog

Today, the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing to examine the Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s (OSHA) overreach, and how the Trump administration can restore OSHA’s mission to promote safe workplaces.
  Subcommittee Chairman Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) started the hearing by saying: “In recent years, we’ve seen a regulatory approach that, in many cases, may have gone beyond OSHA’s statutory authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. While these actions may have been well-intentioned, they often created confusion or imposed overly broad mandates that didn’t meet the realities of the industries affected—especially for small businesses.”

Witnesses echoed the concerns of federal overreach impacting their industry.
  “Common-sense labor policies support manufacturing operations and empower the American worker, but recent actions by the Department of Labor threaten to impose unworkable rules that do very little to improve safety. If we want to grow manufacturing in the U.S., we need to rebalance regulations that cost manufacturers $350 billion every year,” said Mr. Jake Parsons, President, Northeast Division, CRH Americas Materials, on behalf of the National Association of Manufacturers. 
Rep. Mark Messmer (R-IN) asked Ms. Felicia Watson, Senior Counsel at Littler Mendelson, how to make OSHA’s heat standard workable, rather than burdensome for small businesses. She replied, “It needs to be flexible. I’ve talked to people in New Mexico who say 80 degrees is a great day to build, it’s perfect weather. And you might have something completely different in Florida… having something that is clear and straightforward, and provides that flexibility for the type of jobsite it is or workplace it is, but also that the employees can understand.”
 
In an exchange with Rep. James Comer (R-KY), Mr. Parson brought attention to the fact that industries are so diverse. “I think that’s the key word—and the word I was going to use as well—is ‘diverse.’ Even in our own industry, and in our own infrastructure, we do so many different things. And if you think about all of manufacturing across the United States, it varies widely. It’s indoors, it’s outdoors, it’s freight. It’s so big. It’s impossible to create a standard that applies to all… empowering management is what I would say, to take care of your people and do the right thing, that’s going to be more powerful,” Mr. Parson said.
   

Rep. Mary Miller (R-IL) rebuked the notion that employers don’t want to protect their workers. “Employers are job creators and should be seen as active partners in creating safe work environments. Yet Democrats continue to treat employers as greedy money-grabbers who don’t care about the wellbeing of their employees,” she said.

 
Ms. Watson underscored this point by discussing how the Biden administration’s changes to the instance-by-instance rule drastically expanded punitive measures against job creators. 
 
Building on Chairman Walberg’s question about OSHA failing to issue a tree care standard despite it being one of the most hazardous industries in the nation, Mr. Ben Tresselt, President and Owner of Arborist Enterprises, on behalf of the Tree Care Industry Association, told Rep. Kevin Kiley (R-CA), “We’ve been fighting for this for 20 years. We aren’t looking to be regulated--we’re looking to be helped, because we want to keep our people safe. We don’t want to have fatalities. We want to reduce the amount of injuries. We want to do the things that are right for our people and we need OSHA’s help.” Yet Democrats continued to push for more top-down policies that fail to meet industry needs. Mr. Jordan Barab, the Democrat-invited witness and Former Deputy Assistant Secretary of OSHA, used his opening statement to tell Committee Members, “I will take issue with the title of this hearing. OSHA’s problem is not overreach, but underreach.” Because, of course, Democrats think they know better than job creators. Sadly, Democrats used today’s hearing to push a one-size-fits-all regulatory agenda that fails to incorporate the needs of job creators who know how to keep their employees safe.

Bottom line: Republicans want all Americans to have a healthy job environment where both workers and job creators can flourish.