"Secret Rule" Hearing Wednesday Morning at 10:00
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Jordan Barab
Sep 16, 2008, 11:49:55 PM9/16/08
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The House Education and Labor Committee, Subcommittee on Workforce Protections will hold a hearing tomorrow at 10:00 am on the Department of Labor's "Secret Rule" on risk assessment. Testifying are Assistant Secretary of Labor for Policy Leon Sequeira, AFL-CIO Health and Safety Director Peg Seminario, GW University Lecturer Celeste Monforton, and Chamber of Commerce VP Randy Johnson. You can watch LIVE on the web here: http://edlabor.house.gov/committee/schedule.shtml
Or tune in later for the archived webcast.
Background: You may recall that this new regulation appeared on the Office of Management and Budget website at the beginning of July without being announced in the DOL Regulatory Agenda. The regulation was officially proposed on August 29, the Friday before Labor Day. The rule would significantly lengthen the time it takes to issue an OSHA or MSHA standard, and make it much harder to issue protective standards.
Nevertheless, the Department claims that the rule only addresses internal DOL procedures and has therefore refused to hold a hearing, and is offering only a short 30 day comment period. They are trying to rush the new rule out before the end of the Administration, in violation of a White House memo that told Agencies not to issue any new proposals after June1 except in "extraordinary circumstances."
In the last 8 years, OSHA has not issued a single new health standard (aside from one issued under court order), while MSHA has also issued only one. Instead of focusing on that problem, however, the Department seems to be focusing on how to slow the process down further. The proposal was issued by the politicals in the Secretary of Labor's Office of Policy, not by the experts at OSHA or MSHA, who, according to the Washington Post, opposed the new rule.
Congressman George Miller has introduced HR 6660 that would forbid the Department from issuing or enforcing the new rule.
Good Washington Post Article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/17/AR2008081702047.html
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Jordan Barab
Or tune in later for the archived webcast.
Background: You may recall that this new regulation appeared on the Office of Management and Budget website at the beginning of July without being announced in the DOL Regulatory Agenda. The regulation was officially proposed on August 29, the Friday before Labor Day. The rule would significantly lengthen the time it takes to issue an OSHA or MSHA standard, and make it much harder to issue protective standards.
Nevertheless, the Department claims that the rule only addresses internal DOL procedures and has therefore refused to hold a hearing, and is offering only a short 30 day comment period. They are trying to rush the new rule out before the end of the Administration, in violation of a White House memo that told Agencies not to issue any new proposals after June1 except in "extraordinary circumstances."
In the last 8 years, OSHA has not issued a single new health standard (aside from one issued under court order), while MSHA has also issued only one. Instead of focusing on that problem, however, the Department seems to be focusing on how to slow the process down further. The proposal was issued by the politicals in the Secretary of Labor's Office of Policy, not by the experts at OSHA or MSHA, who, according to the Washington Post, opposed the new rule.
Congressman George Miller has introduced HR 6660 that would forbid the Department from issuing or enforcing the new rule.
Good Washington Post Article here: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/17/AR2008081702047.html
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Jordan Barab
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