[Congressional Bills 112th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 571 Introduced in House (IH)]

112th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 571

  To require a heightened review process by the Secretary of Labor of 
  State occupational safety and health plans, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                            February 9, 2011

 Ms. Hirono (for herself, Mr. George Miller of California, Mr. Kildee, 
Mr. Payne, Ms. Woolsey, Mr. Grijalva, and Mr. Courtney) introduced the 
 following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Education and 
                             the Workforce

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To require a heightened review process by the Secretary of Labor of 
  State occupational safety and health plans, and for other purposes.

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

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Worker Safety Act''.

SEC. 2. REVIEW OF STATE OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH PLANS.

    Section 18 of the Occupational Safety and Health Act (29 U.S.C. 
668) is amended--
            (1) by amending subsection (f) to read as follows:
    ``(f)(1) The Secretary shall, on the basis of reports submitted by 
the State agency and the Secretary's own inspections, make a continuing 
evaluation of the manner in which each State that has a plan approved 
under this section is carrying out such plan. Such evaluation shall 
include an assessment of whether the State continues to meet the 
requirements of subsection (c) of this section and any other criteria 
or indices of effectiveness specified by the Secretary in regulations. 
Whenever the Secretary finds, on the basis of such evaluation, that in 
the administration of the State plan there is a failure to comply 
substantially with any provision of the State plan (or any assurance 
contained therein), the Secretary shall make an initial determination 
of whether the failure is of such a nature that the plan should be 
withdrawn or whether the failure is of such a nature that the State 
should be given the opportunity to remedy the deficiencies, and provide 
notice of the Secretary's findings and initial determination.
    ``(2) If the Secretary makes an initial determination to reassert 
and exercise concurrent enforcement authority while the State is given 
an opportunity to remedy the deficiencies, the Secretary shall afford 
the State an opportunity for a public hearing within 15 days of such 
request, provided that such request is made not later than 10 days 
after Secretary's notice to the State. The Secretary shall review and 
consider the testimony, evidence, or written comments, and not later 
than 30 days following such hearing, make a determination to affirm, 
reverse, or modify the Secretary's initial determination to reassert 
and exercise concurrent enforcement authority under sections 8, 9, 10, 
13, and 17 with respect to standards promulgated under section 6 and 
obligations under section 5(a). Following such a determination by the 
Secretary, or in the event that the State does not request a hearing 
within the time frame set forth in this paragraph, the Secretary may 
reassert and exercise such concurrent enforcement authority, while a 
final determination is pending under paragraph (3) or until the 
Secretary has determined that the State has remedied the deficiencies 
as provided under paragraph (4). Such determination shall be published 
in the Federal Register. The procedures set forth in section 18(g) 
shall not apply to a determination by the Secretary to reassert and 
exercise such concurrent enforcement authority.
    ``(3) If the Secretary makes an initial determination that the plan 
should be withdrawn, the Secretary shall provide due notice and the 
opportunity for a hearing. If based on the evaluation, comments, and 
evidence, the Secretary makes a final determination that there is a 
failure to comply substantially with any provision of the State plan 
(or any assurance contained therein), he shall notify the State agency 
of the withdrawal of approval of such plan and upon receipt of such 
notice such plan shall cease to be in effect, but the State may retain 
jurisdiction in any case commenced before the withdrawal of the plan in 
order to enforce standards under the plan whenever the issues involved 
do not relate to the reasons for the withdrawal of the plan.
    ``(4) If the Secretary makes a determination that the State should 
be provided the opportunity to remedy the deficiencies, the Secretary 
shall provide the State an opportunity to respond to the Secretary's 
findings and the opportunity to remedy such deficiencies within a time 
period established by the Secretary, not to exceed 1 year. The 
Secretary may extend and revise the time period to remedy such 
deficiencies, if the State's legislature is not in session during this 
1-year time period, or if the State demonstrates that it is not 
feasible to correct the deficiencies in the time period set by the 
Secretary, and the State has a plan to correct the deficiencies within 
a reasonable time period. If the Secretary finds that the State agency 
has failed to remedy such deficiencies within the time period specified 
by the Secretary and that the State plan continues to fail to comply 
substantially with a provision of the State plan, the Secretary shall 
withdraw the State plan as provided for in paragraph (3).''; and
            (2) by adding at the end the following new subsection:
    ``(i) Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment of this 
subsection, and every 5 years thereafter, the Comptroller General shall 
complete and issue a review of the effectiveness of State plans to 
develop and enforce safety and health standards to determine if they 
are at least as effective as the Federal program and to evaluate 
whether the Secretary's oversight of State plans is effective. The 
Comptroller General's evaluation shall assess--
            ``(1) the effectiveness of the Secretary's oversight of 
        State plans, including the indices of effectiveness used by the 
        Secretary;
            ``(2) whether the Secretary's investigations in response to 
        Complaints About State Plan Administration (CASPA) are 
        adequate, whether significant policy issues have been 
        identified by headquarters and corrective actions are fully 
        implemented by each State;
            ``(3) whether the formula for the distribution of funds 
        described in section 23(g) to State programs is fair and 
        adequate;
            ``(4) whether State plans are as effective as the Federal 
        program in preventing occupational injuries, illnesses and 
        deaths, and investigating discrimination complaints, through an 
        evaluation of at least 20 percent of approved State plans, and 
        which shall cover--
                    ``(A) enforcement effectiveness, including handling 
                of fatalities, serious incidents and complaints, 
                compliance with inspection procedures, hazard 
                recognition, verification of abatement, violation 
                classification, citation and penalty issuance, 
                including appropriate use of willful and repeat 
                citations, and employee involvement;
                    ``(B) inspections, the number of programmed health 
                and safety inspections at private and public sector 
                establishments, and whether the State targets the 
                highest hazard private sector work sites and facilities 
                in that State;
                    ``(C) budget and staffing, including whether the 
                State is providing adequate budget resources to hire, 
                train and retain sufficient numbers of qualified staff, 
                including timely filling of vacancies;
                    ``(D) administrative review, including the quality 
                of decisions, consistency with Federal precedence, 
                transparency of proceedings, decisions and records are 
                available to the public, adequacy of State defense, and 
                whether the State appropriately appeals adverse 
                decisions;
                    ``(E) antidiscrimination, including whether 
                discrimination complaints are processed in a timely 
                manner, whether supervisors and investigators are 
                properly trained to investigate discrimination 
                complaints, whether a case file review indicates merit 
                cases are properly identified consistent with Federal 
                policy and procedure, whether employees are notified of 
                their rights, and whether there is an effective process 
                for employees to appeal the dismissal of a complaint;
                    ``(F) program administration, including whether the 
                State's standards and policies are at least as 
                effective as the Federal program and are updated in a 
                timely manner, and whether National Emphasis Programs 
                that are applicable in such States are adopted and 
                implemented in a manner that is at least as effective 
                as the Federal program;
                    ``(G) whether the State plan satisfies the 
                requirements for approval set forth in this section and 
                its implementing regulations; and
                    ``(H) other such factors identified by the 
                Comptroller General, or as requested by the Committee 
                on Education and the Workforce of the House of 
                Representatives or the Committee on Health, Education, 
                Labor, and Pensions of the Senate.''.
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