[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H1972]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     CORPS OF ENGINEERS VERSUS OSHA

  (Mr. HEFLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. HEFLEY. Mr. Speaker, a contractor in Kansas City was laying pipe 
for the Army Corps of Engineers when brackish, green water seeped into 
the cut. The corps tested the water and told the contractor that there 
was no health risk--get on with the job.
  Three months later, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration 
fined the contractor for failing to protect his employees.
  As the employer commented, ``You had one Government agency [telling 
us] the material was not hazardous and that we were to proceed, and 
another agency citing us for exposing workers to an alleged hazardous 
material.''
  Mr. Speaker, it's time to end the heads-I-win, tails-you-lose 
regulatory policies of the past. Let us pass the regulatory moritorium 
bill, let us take a hard look at OSHA's abusive practices, and let us 
rationalize our regulation of America's workplaces.
  Mr. Speaker, we have had 50 days of changing America; now let us have 
50 more.


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