Occupational Safety and Health Small Business Day in Court Act of 2005
OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY AND HEALTH SMALL BUSINESS DAY IN COURT ACT OF 2005 -- (House of Representatives - July 12, 2005)
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Ms. FOXX. Madam Speaker, I am proud to support and cosponsor all four of these important pieces of legislation on OSHA reform. Each is an integral step to come to the aid of our small businesses. Not only are our small businesses increasingly faced with greater competition from the bigger competitors in the U.S. but also are they faced with greater competition from across the globe. The last thing they need are unnecessary and burdensome regulations from their own government.
According to a study discussed in the Office of Management and Budget's "Draft Report to Congress on the Costs and Benefits of Federal Regulations for 2005," it is estimated that the, quote, total cost of Federal regulation, environmental, workplace, economic and tax compliance regulation, was 60 percent greater per employee for firms with under 20 employees compared to firms with over 500 employees.
In another recent study, these costs translate to approximately $7,000 in regulatory costs per employee per year. We need to aid our small businesses in being more competitive, not help force them out of business. Certainly the goals of the Occupational Safety and Health Agency to ensure workplace safety and health are laudable and protecting our workers is and must remain paramount. But oftentimes good intentions do not result in the best practices. Our small businesses and our workers deserve better.
H.R. 739, the first of four bills that we are considering today, promotes fairness for small businesses while improving competition and worker safety. It allows the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission more flexibility to make exceptions to the 15-day deadline when employers must file appeals to OSHA citations. Many of our small businesses unintentionally and innocently miss this arbitrary deadline and can be denied their day in court as a result. While many of our small businesses are struggling to provide their employees with the safest work environments and access to the best health care and other benefits, they must comply with inflexible regulations such as these. Many small businesses that have unintentionally missed this deadline are simply not able to navigate the complex regulations in order to appeal the OSHA citation.
In January of this year, even the Department of Labor agreed that this deadline is too burdensome and decided it would allow the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to have discretion over the 15-day deadline for filing appeals. This was welcome news for small businesses. Now, all we need to do is codify this provision. We are certainly not advocating that every small business be given a pass on this deadline to respond to a citation, but let us be reasonable here and give them the benefit of the doubt by instilling just a little bit more flexibility into these regulations.
Let me also mention these three other bills, H.R. 740, H.R. 741 and H.R. 742, that we are debating this afternoon. Expanding the review board for appeals cases to OSHA from three to five commissioners would speed up the appeals process so small businesses will have their cases reviewed in a timely manner.
H.R. 741 will restore the original practice and congressional intent to ensure that the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission, or the court, will be the party to interpret OSHA regulations, not OSHA itself. And finally, H.R. 742 will allow small businesses to recover the costly attorney fees incurred if they successfully challenge an OSHA citation. Each of these will help alleviate overbearing regulations that thwart the creativity and entrepreneurial spirit of small businesses.
In past years, each of these four bills has passed the House by good margins. Let us send these provisions once again to the other side of the Capitol and encourage them to act this year to help our small businesses. Jobs are at stake and a vital economy lies in the balance. We must keep our small businesses vital, healthy, and competitive.
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