[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H5937-H5938]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                 DAY 53

  (Mr. BALLENGER asked and was given permission to address the House

[[Page H5938]]

for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. BALLENGER. Mr. Speaker, small business continues to get the cold 
shoulder from the Clinton administration.
  Recently, I introduced the Small Business OSHA Relief Act. Seventy-
five of my colleagues have cosponsored the bill. The bill is entirely 
made up of provisions that the Clinton administration at one point or 
another claimed to support. And it would give some needed relief to 
small business from an agency which is too often unnecessarily 
adversarial and lacking in common sense.
  I wrote the Secretary of Labor on April 15 asking for his comments on 
the bill. I hoped that he would support it, since it is entirely taken 
from his and the President's statements of relief they claimed to 
support for small business.
  Well, here we are on June 5 and we still have not even received a 
response from the Secretary of Labor. I realize that relief for small 
business from OSHA's excesses does not rank very high on the priority 
list of the Secretary of Labor. In fact, I don't think that small 
business concerns are on his priority list at all.
  But I guess I shouldn't be surprised that the Secretary of Labor 
shows no interest and support for legislation to help small business. 
After all, this administration talks a good line, but does not back up 
its words with action.

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