Government Affairs Blog

So who's in charge? A recent Congressional hearing talked about the goal of having one federal agency assume the leadership on pandemic flu. So what happened? The Department of Health and Human Services said that HHS and OSHA should be in charge. The Department of Homeland Security said that the Office of Personnel Management should be in charge. The Government Accountability Office said that all agencies should be working on this and they should be in touch with each other. This after we just averted the first big threat of the H1N1, even though it has now been labeled a pandemic. This is just another sign that we have too many agencies wanting to take control of issues but never following through. And the private sector isn't much better. Nearly 8 years after 9/11 and we seem to have relegated emergency preparedness and response to the back room. We have missed the boat on developing a clear and concise plan for emergencies. Let's just hope it's not too late.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 02:37 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Nearly six months into the new administration and we still have no word on who will be nominated as Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. An early flurry of activity from the administration found dozens and dozens of nominations and confirmations. What about OSHA? I am beginning to believe this administration has decided to let OSHA linger without any permanent leadership for several more months. The name we kept hearing, David Michaels, has not been mentioned in weeks. Is there a problem? Who knows. What I do know is that those who believe the increased activity at the agency will result in completion of many delayed standards,rules, regualtions, etc. had better not get their hopes up.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 09:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AIHA is preparing to launch another effort to see if we can find a new process to "update the PELs". But such an effort will only work if we have the "buy-in" of OSHA and the Administration. This remains to be seen. While we have received "off-the-record" support from OSHA that they may even be willing to have a non-voting representative on the working group, I'm a little concerned about what might happen when we have a permanent Asistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. If the rumor is correct that David Michaels will probably be named the Assistant Secretary, it raises some interesting questions. Mr. Michaels has written that "successive OSHA administrators have simply recognized that establishing new standards is so time and labor-intensive, and will inevitably call forth such orchestrated opposition from industry, that it is not worth expending the agency's limited resources on the issue". Let's hope this is just his opinion on previous efforts at OSHA and are not his view of what he may or may do with the issue. Sure hope this question is raised at any confirmation hearing.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 09:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

AIHA received a letter from Acting Assistant Secretary for OSHA Jordan Barab in response to our request to lower the PEL for occupational exposure to noise. While Mr. Barab "shares our concerns" about this issue, he essentially told AIHA we must wait for a permanent Assistant Secretary to be put in place before any decisions on standards are made. Let's hope this is not a delaying tactic and that when a new Assistant Secretary is in place this is one of the issues he/she addresses. AIHA first contacted OSHA two years ago requesitng the same thing. Hard to tell how this delay has impacted workers. Problem is, if OSHA does address the issue, it is likely there will be opposition and the delay will continue.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 09:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

So, after all this time OSHA finally decides to send the GHS proposal to the Office of Management and Budget for Review? A proposal that should have been out and adopted a couple of years ago. A proposal that essentially is so delayed the U.S. has fallen far, far behind the European union in addressing GHS. But now - guess what? All of a sudden we have some industry folks claiming that the proposal may cause an undue hardship on small business. Now, I'm not questioning whether or not this is true. What I am questioning is the fact that if this is such a concern, why didn't industry address the question anytime during the last three years? But they decided to wait until the proposal moves forward so they can again delay implementation. And we wonder why the process is so messed up!

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 08:58 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)