Government Affairs Blog

Okay, everyone realizes we need to fix the health care system in this country. Congress is now working hard to review the proposal from the Obama Administration and make changes as necessary. The hope is to have a bill on the President's desk by October.

But here's the rub. Over the period of the last three weeks it seems health care is the only thing being discussed on Capitol Hill. And now we have the Supreme Court nominee confirmation hearings.

Here's my question. With more than 40 committees between the House and the Senate, and over a hundred subcommittees, there are only a couple of them debating the health care issue and the supreme court nominee. What the heck are the rest of them doing and why can't we see some additional activity on other issues - occupational health and safety as an example - hint - hint?

I'm getting a little tired of Congress completely shutting down to discuss one issue when few of the Members have anything to do with it at this time. Let's get back to the work of the people - as there are other issues that also impact our citizens.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 12:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The Secretary of Labor and Acting Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA recently spoke at the ASSE conference - detailing that OSHA is back in the enforcement business. Good news or bad news? From my perspective it is great to see the agency have a proactive agenda that goes after bad actors, and an agenda that signifies a push to enact long-awaited standards that need to be finalized. However - let's all wait and see what happens with this agenda before we get too carried away. It is a positive sign the agency has increased penalties on their own - without Congressional action. And it's great to see them send signals that we have a lot of work to do. But again, reality will set in sooner or later and the agency will come to realize it is easier said than done as far as moving standards forward. But the signals they sent last week are very positive. I'm one willing to give them the benefit of the doubt and offer my support for their efforts.

Posted by Aaron Trippler at 08:05 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)