[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 127 (Wednesday, August 2, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H8179]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                 SUPPORT H.R. 1834, THE OSHA REFORM ACT

  (Mr. NORWOOD asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute.)
  Mr. NORWOOD. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the Secretary of Labor issued a 
so-called analysis that supposedly showed that Republican OSHA reforms 
would lead to more workplace injuries. This is outrageous 
fearmongering. Instead of playing politics, the Secretary should be 
finding an answer for the question we have asked: Why, after spending 
over $4 billion, is there so little evidence that OSHA has made a real 
impact on reducing injuries and deaths?
  The Secretary is fond of noting that injury rates have been declining 
since OSHA's birth in 1970, but he rarely mentions that those rates 
have been dropping, indeed, since 1946. Perhaps the Secretary just does 
not want to consider the real world. Maybe he is just too busy trying 
to figure out that government can run our lives to think that OSHA 
really is a failure.
  It is time the American taxpayer insisted that OSHA spend at least 
half of its funds on health and safety in the workplace, rather than 
hiring dictators to fine small businesses.

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