[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 65 (Friday, April 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E829]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            THE OSHA CONSULTATION AUTHORIZATION ACT OF 1995

                                 ______


                          HON. JAMES A. HAYES

                              of louisiana

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 6, 1995
  Mr. HAYES. Mr. Speaker, the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration's [OSHA] Consultation Services [OSHCON] currently derive 
their authority from a shaky regulatory framework. OSHCON programs 
compete for very limited dollars with other OSHA education and training 
compliance assistance programs. Therefore, in an effort to enhance the 
Federal Government's responsiveness to the business community and to 
provide more effective solutions to the problems impacting safety and 
health in the workplace, I, along with my colleague Congressman Cass 
Ballenger, am introducing the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration Consultation Authorization Act of 1995.
  Our bill would, simply put, statutorily codify the authority of the 
Department of Labor to establish the current scheme of cooperative 
agreements with States. There is overwhelming and widespread support 
for our language amongst representatives of both large industry and 
small business, officials from the Occupational Safety and Health 
Consultation Programs, and the Administration.
  Businesses in Louisiana and throughout the country convey to me 
horror stories about the burdens that OSHA standards and paperwork 
requirements impose upon their fiscal stability without producing 
discernable corresponding benefits to safety and health. They would 
welcome initiatives that seek to distribute information on safety and 
health in a more timely and efficient manner. Businessmen realize that 
safe employment practices enable them to compete for and retain the 
most qualified employees.
  State run consultation offices are overworked and understaffed. OSHA 
has consistently failed to allocate adequate resources to OSHCON 
programs. With the proposed fiscal year 1996 budget request, we are 
again faced with a budget recommendation heavily slanted toward 
enforcement rather than compliance assistance. We owe businesses and 
employees alike the opportunity to work in a safe environment. We can 
and should redirect our priorities toward productive and pro-active 
strategies, such as consultation assistance, and away from the reactive 
and cumbersome overregulatory approaches of the past.
  I welcome my colleagues to join Mr. Ballenger and I in our fight to 
ensure the successful continuation of a health and safety program that 
works.


                          ____________________