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)

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)