[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2485]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            MORE REGULATION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Michigan (Mr. Walberg) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. WALBERG. With Michigan's unemployment rate consistently higher 
than the national average, I remain committed to thoroughly reviewing 
the implications of burdensome regulations that have the potential to 
overwhelm my State's and country's job creators.
  A current effort by the Department of Labor is a new standard being 
considered by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration called 
the Injury and Illness Prevention Program, or I2P2. The standard will 
require all employers to implement safety and health programs to ``find 
and fix'' all hazards in their workplace, even those not otherwise 
regulated.
  This regulation could potentially impact every employer covered by 
OSHA unless OSHA exempts small employers or those with less hazardous 
workplaces. Many employers who voluntarily issued safety and health 
programs have improved their workplaces' safety culture, but there are 
serious problems about this standard that OSHA has not addressed.
  The moment this regulation gets issued, safety and health programs 
will go from being a good idea to a legal requirement, which means 
employers will have to meet OSHA's standards rather than what works 
best for them and their employees and what is indicated as best in best 
practices.
  OSHA will have the authority to come in and second-guess an employer 
about how well they have implemented their program. Not surprisingly 
then, job creators see the I2P2 regulation as just another OSHA 
enforcement tool rather than something that will help them enhance 
their safety practices.
  But they're not the only ones.
  A recent RAND study found that California's I2P2 regulation, which 
has been in place since 1991, has not prevented workplace fatalities 
and barely made a dent in total injury prevention. Many job creators 
are worried that OSHA will double dip on citations, issuing one 
citation for a hazard and another citation because the safety and 
health program failed to detect and correct the hazard. Talk about 
double jeopardy.
  Finally, another problem is whether employers will be required to 
find and fix ergonomics hazards. The Clinton administration issued an 
ergonomic regulation in 2000 that was shot down, thankfully, by 
Congress.
  OSHA will soon hold a small business panel to ask job creators across 
the country their opinion and insight on I2P2. I hope the Obama 
administration, against its pattern, listens to the concerns of these 
business owners instead of imposing a costly regulation that we have 
proof will not improve worker safety. Imposing a new and costly safety 
and health program standard will only serve to increase OSHA 
enforcement with no visible improvement to worker safety and safe 
health.
  As Ronald Reagan once said:

       It is not my intention to do away with government. It is, 
     rather, to make it work for us, not over us; to stand by our 
     side, not ride on our back.

  It's my hope we remain committed to this principle and ensure that 
regulations ensure both productivity and job creation and true health 
and safety of our workforce.

                          ____________________