[Congressional Bills 105th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 2871 Introduced in House (IH)]







105th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 2871

To amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to provide for 
    the establishment of advisory panels for the Secretary of Labor.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            November 7, 1997

   Mr. Ballenger (for himself, Mr. Hall of Texas, Mr. Stenholm, Mr. 
Norwood, Mr. Barrett of Nebraska, Mr. Paul, Mr. DeLay, Mr. Bob Schaffer 
of Colorado, Mr. Hoekstra, Mr. Graham, Mr. Istook, Mr. Fawell, and Mr. 
   Boehner) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the 
                Committee on Education and the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 to provide for 
    the establishment of advisory panels for the Secretary of Labor.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. ADVISORY PANEL.

    Section 6(g) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 (29 
U.S.C 655(g)) is amended to read as follows:
    ``(g)(1) Except as provided in paragraph (2), whenever the 
Secretary determines that a rule should be promulgated or modified in 
order to serve the objectives of this Act, the Secretary shall appoint 
a panel of individuals to review the scientific and economic data which 
forms the basis for such standard and the relevance of the data to 
industries and workers which would be affected by the standard. Such 
panel shall be broadly representative and balanced, and shall consist 
of persons who are able to give independent judgment and who have 
expertise in scientific and economic analysis relevant to the industry 
or industries which would be subject to the standard. Persons with 
substantial and relevant expertise shall not be excluded merely because 
they represent entities that may have potential interest in the outcome 
if that interest is fully disclosed to the Secretary and in the case of 
a decision affecting a single entity, no peer reviewer representing 
such entity may be included on the panel. Reports of the panel, 
including any individual and minority reports, shall be published 
together with any proposed or final rule under paragraphs (2) and (4) 
of subsection (b) on the standard. The Secretary shall provide a 
written response to all significant comments of the panel and shall 
include such responses with the proposed or final rule to which the 
reports of the panel members are attached.
    ``(2) The requirements of paragraph (1) shall not apply when the 
rule is completed through negotiated rulemaking under subchapter III of 
chapter 5 of title 5, United States Code.''.
                                 <all>