[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 126 (Tuesday, August 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8071-H8072]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                           WORKER PROTECTION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from Puerto Rico [Mr. Romero-Barcelo] is 
recognized during morning business for 2 minutes.
  Mr. ROMERO-BARCELO. Mr. Speaker, the health, safety, and lives of our 
fellow Americans are severely jeopardized by the drastic cuts in the 
enforcement budget of the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration. The Labor-HHS appropriations bill makes a 33-percent 
cut in Federal OSHA enforcement activities.
  Protecting American workers must be a priority. We cannot, we must 
not be indifferent to their safety.
  We are speaking of real people. We are speaking of life-and-death 
situations: people such as Hector Noble, age 31, who was killed when he 
fell 30 feet from a balcony as he cleaned windows because the guardrail 
had failed; Jose Makina Moji, 46, who was killed in a 25-foot fall from 
a scaffold. The scaffold had not been inspected by OSHA. Juan Figueroa, 
age 21, who was crushed to death when the machine he was working with 
overturned; and Angel
 Colon Canter, age 50, who was killed by an oven rotating system while 
he was cleaning a bread oven. He forgot an instrument inside the oven, 
and when he tried to get back inside the oven to retrieve it, the 
rotation system caught and punctured him, causing his death.

  In all these instances the employer was either indifferent or he was 
too greedy to invest in his worker's safety 

[[Page H8072]]
or just plain negligent. Will we in Congress look away and let workers 
be injured and/or killed by their employer's greed, indifference, or 
negligence?
  These are family tragedies, and I cannot imagine that the families 
and friends of these individuals see any valid or compelling reason to 
reduce OSHA enforcement funds. Such cuts assault the average working 
American families, and we all pay the price.

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