Advocacy group sends letter to Congress opposing funding cuts

Saying a proposed decrease in OSHA funding "pushes the agency back to Fiscal Year 2004 funding levels," the American Society of Safety Engineers has strongly criticized proposed spending cuts.

The organization sent a letter to Rep. Dennis R. Rehberg, R-Mont., chairman of the Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies, which is considering the budget proposals.

The proposed 17.7 percent decrease in OSHA's funding is "far too much and too fast a reduction to allow OSHA to continue the most basic work every administration and Congress has expected from the agency," said ASSE president Darryl C. Hill. "A less effective OSHA will not promote more jobs . . . and a $3 million reduction in OSHA's standard-setting resources will only delay the need to bring this nation's hazard communications in line with the rest of the world, allowing our companies to better meet one set of global standards, helping them be more competitive in the world marketplace."

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Hill also criticizes proposed cuts to OSHA's enforcement capability. While saying it would have "little effect on most of this nation's employers already committed to safety and health without having to be told by OSHA to do so, less enforcement will keep OSHA from targeting their competitors who are not committed to safety and health and, so, compete unfairly with them," Hill said.

The ASSE is "not against any federal agency working to help Congress' efforts to hold the line on federal spending," Hill said, "but cutting OSHA nearly 18 percent is not a reasonable request."

Read more at the WorkersComp Forum homepage.

April 4, 2011

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