[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 57 (Thursday, April 29, 2004)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4699-S4700]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mr. Corzine, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Bingaman, 
        Mr. Harkin, Ms. Milkulski, Mrs. Murray, Mr. Edwards, Mrs. 
        Clinton, Mr. Akaka, Mr. Lautenberg, Mr. Rockefeller, Mr. 
        Feingold, and Mr. Durbin):
  S. 2371. A bill to amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act of 
1970 to expand coverage under the Act, to increase protections for 
whistleblowers, to increase penalties for certain violators, and for 
other purposes; to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
Pensions.
  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today I am pleased to introduce the 
Protecting America's Workers Act.
  This week, on Workers' Memorial Day, we remember and honor those who 
have died or been injured on the job in the past year. We remember and 
honor their families. And we pledge to do more to end the unsafe and 
unhealthy conditions that still plague so many workplaces across 
America.
  We have made significant progress in protecting worker safety since 
1970, when we passed the Occupational Safety and Health Act. But there 
is still a tremendous amount to be done. Every year, over five thousand 
workers are killed and nearly five million others become ill or are 
injured on the job. That's an average of 15 deaths and 13,000 injuries 
or illnesses each and every day.
  Too many companies are doing too little to deal with this crisis. 
They blatantly ignore the law, but they never

[[Page S4700]]

go to jail--even when their actions or lack of action kill loyal 
employees who work for them. Criminal penalties are so low that 
prosecutors don't pursue these cases. Employers who violate safety laws 
again and again pay only minimal fines--which they treat as just 
another cost of doing business.
  We cannot let these shameful practices continue. We cannot allow 
employers to put millions of workers at risk in our factories, nursing 
homes, construction sites, and many other workplaces every day.
  We need to hold this Administration accountable--require them to act, 
instead of sweeping serious violations under the rug. We also need to 
protect workers with the courage to speak out against health and safety 
violations in the workplace.
  That is why we are today introducing the Protecting America's Workers 
Act.
  It will protect millions of workers not covered by current safety 
laws. By extending the Occupational Safety and Health Act, we will 
cover 8 million public employees and millions of transportation and 
other workers.
  The bill imposes jail time--up to ten years, instead of only six 
months under current law--on those whose blatant violation of safety 
laws leads to a worker's death. We also increase civil penalties, to 
provide additional deterrence for employers.
  We require the Occupational Safety and Health Administration to 
investigate more cases, and we give workers and their families more 
rights in the investigation process.
  We provide stronger protections for workers who report health or 
safety violations.
  I know it will be an uphill battle to get this legislation through 
this Republican Congress. But I'm committed to the fight. I'm committed 
to fighting for people like Jeff Walters, whose son Patrick was killed 
when a trench collapsed on him two years ago. His employer was known to 
be violating critical safety rules. We will fight for people like Ron 
Hayes, whose son Patrick suffocated in a grain elevator. Ron is now 
helping families throughout the United States deal with the grief of 
having a family member killed at work.
  We intend to do everything we can to keep other working families from 
that grief. These deaths and injuries aren't accidents they're crimes, 
and it's time we started treating them like crimes.
  I urge my colleagues to join in this fight for a safe workplace for 
all of America's workers. We can take a major step forward by the 
Protecting America's Workers Act.
  Mr. CORZINE. Mr. President, I rise today to express my strong support 
for the Protecting America's Workers Act introduced by Senator Kennedy. 
I am proud to join him as a cosponsor of this important legislation.
  Yesterday, this country recognized Worker Memorial Day. Created in 
1989 to remember workers who have been killed or injured in the 
workplace over the past year, Worker Memorial Day has been designated 
April 28 as a tribute to the anniversary of the enactment of the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act. In my view, there is no better 
tribute to the lives that have been lost than to think about how we can 
prevent future losses of this kind.
  The facts tell a grim story: an eight-month examination of workplace 
deaths by The New York Times found that, over a span of two decades, 
from 1982 to 2002, OSHA investigated 1,242 horrific instances in which 
the agency itself concluded that workers had died because of their 
employer's ``willful'' safety violations. Yet in 93 percent of those 
cases, OSHA declined to seek prosecution.
  Employees have a fundamental right to a safe work environment, and 
more needs to be done to ensure that businesses that deliberately put 
the lives of their workers at risk are held accountable for their 
actions. This legislation would go a long way to strengthen our 
workplace safety system in a variety of ways.
  I am particularly pleased that this legislation includes provisions 
to shore up a fundamental weakness in American workplace safety law: 
the shockingly inadequate penalties associated with crimes under the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act. This legislation includes the 
provisions of the Workplace Wrongful Death Accountability Act, S. 1272, 
legislation that I introduced to increase the maximum criminal penalty 
for those who willfully violate workplace safety laws and cause the 
death of an employee.
  It is unbelievable to me that, under existing law, that crime is a 
misdemeanor, and carries a maximum prison sentence of just 6 months. 
These provisions would increase the penalty for this most egregious 
workplace crime to 10 years, making it a felony. They also increase the 
penalty associated with lying to an OSHA inspector from 6 months to 1 
year, and increase the penalty for illegally giving advance warning of 
an upcoming inspection from 6 months to 2 years.
  In recent times, Congress has focused on a shocking succession of 
corporate scandals: Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, to name a few. These 
revelations of corporate abuse raised the ire and indignation of the 
American people. But corporate abuses can sometimes go further than 
squandering employee pension funds and costing shareholder value. 
Sometimes, corporate abuses can cost lives.
  The provisions are based on the simple premise that going to work 
should not carry a death sentence. Annually, more than 6,000 Americans 
are killed on the job, and some 50,000 more die from work-related 
illnesses. Many of those deaths are completely preventable.
  While many factors contribute to the unsafe working environment that 
exists at certain jobsites, one easily remedied factor is an 
ineffective regime of criminal penalties. The criminal statutes 
associated with OSHA have been on the books since the 1970s, but, over 
time, the deterrence value of these important workplace safety laws has 
eroded substantially. With the maximum jail sentence of 6 months, 
Federal prosecutors have only a minimal incentive to spend time and 
resources prosecuting renegade employers. According to a recent 
analysis, since the Occupational Safety and Health Act was enacted, 
only 11 employers who caused the death of a worker on the job were 
incarcerated.
  The logic behind increasing criminal penalties in these cases is 
simple. It will increase the incentive for prosecutors to hold renegade 
employers accountable for endangering the lives of their workers and, 
thereby, help ensure that OSHA criminal penalties cannot be safely 
ignored. This will provide the OSHA criminal statute with sufficient 
teeth to deter the small percentage of bad actors who knowingly and 
willfully place their employees at risk.
  I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting this landmark 
legislation.
                                 ______