[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 68 (Thursday, April 26, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5219-S5220]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. KENNEDY (for himself, Mr. Dodd, Mr. Harkin, Ms. Mikulski, 
        Mr. Bingaman, Mrs. Murray, Mrs. Clinton, Mr. Obama, Mr. 
        Sanders, Mr. Brown, Mr. Inouye, Mr. Biden, Mr. Rockefeller, 
        Mrs. Boxer, Mr. Feingold, Mr. Durbin, Mr. Schumer, Mr. 
        Lautenberg, Mr. Menendez, Mr. Casey, and Mrs. McCaskill):
  S. 1244. 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 those who have been 
killed or injured on the job, and we reaffirm our commitment to workers 
and their families to do all we can to end these senseless tragedies.
  We've made progress in protecting worker safety since we passed the 
Occupational Safety and Health Act in 1970.
  But too many workers still are not safe. In 2005 alone, over 5,700 
workers were killed on the job. Over 4 million became ill or were 
injured. That's nearly 16 deaths and 12,000 workplace injuries or 
illnesses each and every day.
  Last year, the tragic deaths of miners at Sago and Alma mines showed 
us the gaps and shortcomings in mine safety. Across the country, 
America saw the senseless deaths of workers and the suffering of their 
families and friends. Every day, workers in other industries are facing 
equally dangerous conditions. Those dangers may not make headlines, but 
they continue to threaten workers' health, their lives, and their 
families' security.
  One of the most obvious problems is that literally millions of 
employees today are not covered by our safety laws. Too many other 
firms blatantly ignore the law and refuse to do what is necessary to 
keep their employees safe.
  Too often, as well, we find that those responsible for administering 
our safety laws aren't doing their job--not issuing new safety 
standards, not vigorously enforcing the law, and not even going after 
the worst offenders.
  Many companies are doing too little to deal with this challenge. Some 
employers blatantly ignore the law, but are rarely held accountable, 
even when their actions or neglect kill a loyal employee who works for 
them. Criminal penalties are so low that prosecutors don't pursue these 
cases. And employers who repeatedly violate the law--time and time 
again--pay only minimal fines, which they treat as just another cost of 
doing business.
  American workers and their families are paying the price. This 
includes people like Mike Morrison, who was killed while installing 
pipes at a construction site in Florida, when the nine-foot-deep trench 
he was working in collapsed. An OSHA investigation found that the 
trench had not been secured properly before workers were sent into it. 
The employer whose failures had killed Mike was fined a mere $21,000, a 
slap on the wrist. Two years earlier, the company had been cited and 
fined for other safety violations. As Mike's step-daughter Michelle 
says, ``If the penalties had been more substantial two years ago, maybe 
Mike's company would have complied with the law and protected him 
properly, and maybe he'd still be with us today.''
  Or Eleazar Torres-Gomez, who was killed working at a laundry facility 
in Tulsa, OK, where he had been employed for seven years. Eleazar was 
dragged into an industrial dryer, where the temperatures were near 300 
degrees. The company he worked for had been previously fined for not 
installing protective guards on a similar dryer and belt at one of its 
other plants. Eleazar's eldest son Emanuel said, ``If the company had 
added the guards, which it knew were required by OSHA, my father would 
be alive today. The sorrow we feel is overwhelming.''
  And they include workers like Tracee Binion, a science teacher in 
Pinson, AL. Tracee became ill after renovations on her school exposed 
her to chemicals in unventilated classrooms. She developed chemical 
pneumonitis and chemically-induced asthma, lost weeks of school and to 
this day must manage her asthma with medication. In Alabama, Tracee and 
thousands of

[[Page S5220]]

teachers like her are not covered by our safety laws. They have no one 
to call when they need protection from workplace hazards.
  We need to do everything we can to see that other workers and their 
families don't have to suffer the same grief.
  Congress can take concrete steps to address many of these failures. 
That's why today we are reintroducing the Protecting America's Workers 
Act. This legislation will do several key things:
  It expands the coverage of our safety laws to protect 8.6 million 
public employees and transportation workers.
  It requires OSHA to investigate every case where a worker is killed 
or seriously injured. And it gives family members greater rights to be 
part of accident investigations.
  It also protects workers who speak up about unsafe conditions on the 
job, by bringing OSHA whistleblower laws in line with protections in 
other areas.
  It puts real teeth in our safety laws by increasing penalties. These 
penalties have not been raised since 1990. This bill sets a minimum 
penalty of $50,000 for a worker's death caused by a willful safety 
violation. And it increases the maximum criminal penalty for killing or 
seriously injuring a worker to ten years of prison, instead of six 
months.
  Beyond this legislation, we must also find new and smarter ways of 
keeping workers safe. We must shine a light on OSHA to ensure that our 
safety laws are implemented the way they were intended--to protect 
workers by preventing hazards on the job. The administration needs to 
put workers first and get the job done.
  It's time to send a message to those who put their employees in 
harm's way that life and health must be valued above profit and greed. 
It's time to redouble our efforts and make our commitment a reality. 
It's time for Congress to act, so that the hardworking men and women of 
our country get what they deserve at last--the security of a safe and 
healthy workplace.
  I urge my colleagues to join me in fighting for safe workplaces for 
all of America's workers. The best way for Congress to honor the 
Nation's hardworking men and women on this Worker's Memorial Day is to 
end our complacency and see that the full promise of OSHA becomes a 
genuine reality for every working family in every community in America.
                                 ______