[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 75 (Thursday, May 5, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2351-S2352]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                  Unanimous Consent Request--H.R. 1195

  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, on April 16, 2021, the House passed H.R. 
1195, the Workplace Violence Prevention for Healthcare and Social 
Service Workers Act. That legislation, sponsored by Congressman   Joe 
Courtney, passed the House 254 to 166 with the support of 38 
Republicans.
  This legislation directs the Occupational Safety and Health 
Administration to issue a standard requiring healthcare and social 
service employers to write and implement a workplace violence 
prevention plan to protect employees from violent incidents.
  In the year since that legislation passed the House, we have been 
unable to generate the same level of support from our Republican 
colleagues needed to pass this legislation in the Senate. This is 
disappointing because the issue of protecting our healthcare and social

[[Page S2352]]

service workers has never been more important.
  Roughly three-quarters of all nonfatal workplace injuries happen to 
healthcare workers.
  While it is too early to have comprehensive data from the pandemic, 
evidence from healthcare organizations suggests that workplace violence 
has exploded during the pandemic, nearing crisis levels for healthcare 
and social service workers. This workplace violence crisis is surely 
contributing to the staffing shortages that many healthcare employers 
have warned us about.
  In Wisconsin, vacancy rates for healthcare positions have been 
increasing, and threats against healthcare workers are viewed as the 
main culprit. These workers care for our loved ones and comfort us in 
our most trying times. They deserve to have the safe environment in 
which to do their work that this legislation provides.
  So as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the 
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from 
further consideration of H.R. 1195 and that the Senate proceed to its 
immediate consideration; that the bill be considered read a third time 
and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and 
laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.
  Mr. BRAUN. Reserving the right to object, I come from the business 
world and know firsthand that employers care about their employees. If 
you don't keep your workplace safe--we just discussed it today in the 
Budget hearing--they are not going to stick with you. I think the 
question is about how you address those issues. I am married to a 
lifelong business owner in our hometown downtown that would say the 
same thing.
  None of us who own businesses think--unless you get very, maybe 
large, where you think you don't need to pay attention to basic common 
sense and the rules--you need something, I think, that addresses the 
issue from here.
  You know, I think that so often when there is an issue, there is just 
a tendency to reflex to the Federal Government. What is not considered 
are the costs and how it might actually play out.
  In this case, I do acknowledge the issue, but I think the bill is in 
search of maybe a problem in the sense that we have got a mechanism 
that already works. I will talk about that here in a moment.
  OSHA is there to find these issues and adjudicate them accordingly, 
and I think what this would do is not lend the marginal benefit and 
would end up, like many bills, adding redtape and costs.
  It has two budget points of order as well. Those are complicated. I 
just believe there are better options.
  Let me talk about this: I introduced the Voluntary Protection Program 
Act that has the same approach in mind, aiming at the same problem. I 
did it with my colleague from Colorado, Senator Bennet. It allows OSHA 
to work alongside employers and workers to encourage businesses without 
going through the redtape or the dictate of the Federal Government, and 
it has been successful.
  It is not like we are trying to reinvent the wheel. It makes 
businesses exempt from bureaucratic requirements as long as, in good 
faith, they are trying to address the underlying issues.
  Look at this. In its current form, it safeguards nearly 1 million 
workers, 700 local unions, and 2,200 worksites. VPP sites have shown 
injury and illness rates 50 percent lower than their industry averages.
  This is something that we should be incorporating across the system 
because it is working, and it is working with an enforcement Agency and 
businesses solving the problem before we give an overall framework from 
here down.
  It has been around for over 40 years, demonstrated its success. I 
think it would be a better approach to a problem. I acknowledge it is 
just not being used broadly enough. After all, it is kind of the way I 
think things should work first before you create a law.
  I will ask for consent here shortly to pass the VPP Act. Let me add 
one important note that is personal to many in this Chamber. The 116th 
Congress was my first as a U.S. Senator, as a freshman. I was assigned 
to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and 
I had the great honor to serve alongside Senator Mike Enzi, who was the 
chair of the Budget Committee. This was his bill.
  Senator Enzi was known as one of the individuals here never to shirk 
an issue but come up with commonsense ways that wouldn't add further to 
our debt, add more bureaucracy, but still solve the issue. This bill 
addresses a program that he cared about deeply that needs to be put 
into statute, to where it is used more broadly, and I was honored to 
take the lead on this act, along with Senator Bennet.
  My bill is a no-brainer. Employers get the choice to participate. It 
has a proven track record, and it makes workplaces safer. It is a win-
win for all involved.
  Therefore, I do object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Wisconsin.
  Ms. BALDWIN. Mr. President, obviously, I am very disappointed, and I 
would point out that a voluntary measure, as my colleague on the HELP 
Committee just described, is not what we need when we step up to help 
protect our frontline workers in emergency rooms and in multiple 
settings where there is, sadly, an increasing propensity for violence.
  Yesterday, I met with members of the American College of Emergency 
Physicians, the people who work on the frontlines in our emergency 
departments and emergency rooms across the country--as well as the 
emergency nurses. One after another, they shared stories of the 
violence they see and experience. I can't imagine walking into work 
every day knowing that this could be the day that someone was going to 
be struck or injured.
  A doctor talked about being strangled with his stethoscope. A nurse 
talked about hearing a fellow nurse being punched and then falling on 
the floor, unconscious, and now with a concussion. I met a nurse 
several years ago from Wisconsin who was beaten so severely by a 
patient that she can no longer work in nursing.
  We are not talking about studying a problem and coming up with a 
voluntary solution; we are talking about a crisis happening to our 
healthcare workers and at a time when they are also dealing with a 
pandemic.
  Healthcare workers, social service workers, nurses, and doctors have 
been here this week. We will have more coming next week. These 
frontline heroes, who have endured so much, deserve the protection of 
an enforceable OSHA standard, not just a voluntary program, which is 
already the status quo.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Indiana.