[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 126 (Tuesday, August 1, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H8073-H8074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                      EFFECT OF PROPOSED OSHA CUTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of May 
12, 1995, the gentleman from New York [Mr. Owens] is recognized during 
morning business for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OWENS. Mr. Speaker, the war on workers and families in America 
will be escalated this week when the Health and Human Services and 
Education appropriations bill reaches the floor of the House.
  For all matters concerned with workplace protections, this Republican 
appropriations bill is not focused on appropriations. This is, instead, 
a stampede into radical authorizing legislation. The authorizing 
Committee on Economic and Educational Opportunities is rendered 
obsolete by what the Committee on Appropriations is doing. The 
antiworker, antiunion Republican overlords have chosen to bypass the 
authorizing process and implement their war against the workers by 
cutting the funds for OSHA, MSHA, and NIOSH.
  We have also provisions which require that OSHA cannot use but two-
thirds of its funds, present funds, for enforcement activities, cuts 
the enforcement budget by 33 percent. It also cuts out economically 
targeted investments. It bans the use of such funds from the pension 
funds for economically targeted investments.
  It allows 14 year olds to load bailers and compactors, although as 
recently 

[[Page H8074]]
as 1994 a man was killed in a compactor. It moves into such minute 
detail as removing the requirement that miners are not allowed to drive 
as part of their work.
  It micromanages with dollars. By micromanaging with the dollars, the 
Appropriations Committee will streamline and accelerate the dirty work 
which was begun already by the authorizing committee.
  The goal of the oppressive elite overclass is to take control of the 
situation through the appropriations process. What they want to do is 
create a level playing field for the worst company bosses in America. 
The goal is to reduce American workers to the level of the desperate, 
nearly enslaved workers of Bangladesh or the Chinese prison laborers.
  Spend no significant money on the health and safety of workers. That 
is the goal. Turn all American workers into urban serfs or suburban 
peasants. This is the final solution. This is the ultimate goal. Total 
control is the Republican goal.
  OSHA enforcement, as I said before, has been cut by 33 percent. That 
is one-third for enforcement. Already, we only have enough inspectors 
to inspect American businesses once every 86 years. With the kind of 
work force they have, they can only inspect every business 
establishment once every 86 years. They wanted to cut that by one-
third.
  MSHA, cut by 7 percent. NIOSH, which does research on new and 
dangerous chemicals, is cut by 25 percent. The National Labor Relations 
Board is cut by 30 percent, all of this in the appropriations bill to 
carry out the will of the Republican overlords in their war against 
labor.
  Congress must be concerned about the health and safety of all 
American workers. The blind and furious ideological war being waged by 
the Republican party against the Nation's labor unions has impelled the 
Republicans into a search and destroy mission against OSHA. This attack 
places all American workers in harm's way.
  There will be a large number of casualties. Already more than 56,000 
American workers die each year as a result of accidents on the job or 
from disease and injuries they suffer in the workplace. Passage of 
legislation designed to disable OSHA will greatly escalate this 
unfortunate body count.
  Speaker Gingrich has recently proclaimed that politics is war without 
blood. The reality is that the Republican war on OSHA will provide pain 
and suffering, and in many instances their scorched earth assault on 
OSHA will also produce blood. Among the 56,000 casualties last year, 
there were 10,000 who bled and died at the work site as a result of a 
horrible accident.
  There is a contract on the life of OSHA. Reform is no longer the 
objective of the Republicans. Vengeance is a goal, but vengeance only 
belongs to God.
  Members of Congress who want to dedicate their efforts to the task of 
making Government work must labor to promote the general welfare and do 
everything possible to make it easier for Americans to engage in the 
pursuit of happiness. Congressmen and Congresswomen should not plot to 
murder OSHA and MSHA.
  Speaker Gingrich defines politics as war without blood. However, the 
kind of politics being pushed by the Republican death and injury 
appropriations act is very much a life-and-death matter. Children will 
lose fathers. Wives will lose husbands. Parents will lose sons and 
daughters. Americans will die as a result of these reckless changes 
being proposed to dismantle OSHA. This brand of politics is too 
extreme. This kind of political war is too deadly.

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