Committee Democrats Call on OSHA to Prioritize Worker Safety

WASHINGTON – Today, the Subcommittee on Workforce Protections held a hearing entitled, “A More Effective and Collaborative OSHA: A View from Stakeholders.” Congressional Republicans and this Administration have taken numerous actions that are jeopardizing worker safety and health protections. Under the current administration, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has terminated or suspended work on nearly half of the proposed safety and health standards that were under development, covering toxic chemical exposure, combustible dust explosion hazards and workplace violence in health care facilities.

“It has been nearly two years since this Committee held a hearing on the Occupational Safety and Health Administration,” said Ranking Member Mark Takano (CA-41), Subcommittee on Workforce Protections. “Failing to improve workplace safety standards has a high price on workers and their families. For people who have been injured on the job, this is about more than just so-called ‘big government regulations.’ This is about their family and their future.”

Cuts to OSHA’s budget undermines the agency’s ability to protect workers. With its current resources, OSHA can inspect the average job site within its jurisdiction once every 159 years. Attacks on workers’ safety is shortsighted – the cost of work-related injuries and illnesses is estimated at $250 billion per year.

“The primary challenge I faced as Assistant Secretary and that OSHA faces today is how to ensure that employers provide safe workplaces and prevent as many injuries and illnesses as possible,” said Dr. David Michaels, Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University, “and doing this with astonishingly meager – and shrinking -- resources given the size and scope of workplace injury and illness that still exist in this country.”

Far too many workers remain at serious risk of injury, illness, or death, despite a substantial decline in injury rates since the passage of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (OSH Act). Despite Republicans ongoing attacks on workplace safety, Committee Democrats are committed to strengthening protections for workers. For example, Congressman Joe Courtney introduced The Protecting America’s Workers Act (H.R. 914), which updates the OSH Act by requiring employers to promptly correct hazardous working conditions that have been cited as “serious” or “willful” by OSHA.

OPENING STATEMENT: Ranking Member Mark Takano, Workforce Protections Subcommittee

WITNESS STATEMENT: David Michaels, Ph.D., MPH, Professor, Department of Environmental and Occupational Health, George Washington University