A newsletter of workplace safety and labor issues
Good Budget News for OSHA Last June we reported some good budget news for OSHA from the Senate, and now it’s gotten a bit better. Conferees from the House and the Senate have just agreed on a budget for OSHA for Fiscal Year 2019 beginning on October 1. Both Houses still have to pass the final…
It’s mid-summer and a man’s fancy turns to what’s happening in OSHA these days. Let’s update you all before you (and I) head out on vacation: Assistant Secretary: Tomorrow will mark a full 18 months of this administration and still no Assistant Secretary at OSHA. Scott Mugno, who has gone through a Senate confirmation hearing…
I’m back after a couple of weeks of travel and instead of focusing about what happened over the last couple of week, what didn’t happen is probably more significant. What Happened Six months into Fiscal Year 2018, Congress finally passed the FY 2018 budget. Congress essentially ignored the President’s request to slash worker safety and health…
The messages to OSHA from the Chamber of Commerce at this week’s House hearing were clear: Don’t (miss)use the General Duty Clause as a substitute for issuing OSHA standards. Don’t issue any OSHA standards. The General Duty Clause: Great Idea, As Long As You Don’t Actually Use It One of the mantras that you hear…
Courtesy of Politico: BALDWIN TAKES FRANKEN’S PLACE: Sen. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.) on Thursday became the new ranking member of the Senate HELP Committee’s Employment and Workplace Safety subcommittee. She was approved in a voice vote to replace former Sen. Al Franken, who resigned amid sexual harassment allegations.
Workplace safety and health surveillance and recordkeeping sound boring, but good data about who’s getting hurt, sick or killed — how and why– are vital to determining the need for safety and health protections, funding and where to put resources for inspections, standards and other strategies to keep workers from getting sick, injured and killed…
With the end of 2017 comes the end of the 10th month of new, revised, rejuvenated version of Confined Space. A lot has happened over the last year. Below are the stories that put workplace safety and health into a political and historical context. But, of course, the real story — and in some ways,…
On a straight party line vote, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions committee voted late yesterday to approve Scott Mugno’s nomination for Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA. All the Republicans voted for; all the Democrats against. Mugno must be approved by the entire Senate, the vote unlikely to take place until January. Some…
OK, now that the dust has settled, what do we think about the performance of OSHA Assistant Secretary nominee Scott Mugno after listening to his testimony at his confirmation hearing on Tuesday (and Tweeting it)? You can watch the entire hearing for yourself here. What Others Are Saying Two days after the hearing, there hasn’t been…
I will be live-tweeting the Mugno confirmation hearing on Twitter (@jbarab) that has just begun. If you don’t follow me on Twitter, now’s the time to correct that oversight. Also on tap is the nominee for head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics and a couple of Education Department nominees. ***** For those of you…