Providing for Consideration of H.R. Workplace Violence Prevention for Health Care and Social Service Workers Act; Providing for Proceedings During the Period From November Through December and Providing for Consideration of Motions to Suspend the Rules

Floor Speech

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule.

I would just note for the Record that Mr. DeSaulnier and Chairman McGovern deserve great credit because this is basically an open rule. There were eight amendments which were offered to the Rules Committee, and all eight amendments were made in order, including a Republican amendment, which is somewhat in line with Dr. Burgess' comments from Mr. Byrne from Alabama, who is on the committee.

Again, I would just say this shows that the Rules Committee was serious last January when they said we are going to have a new era of bringing down the number of closed rules as much as possible. This is a perfect example of it.

In fact, Politico this morning wrote a story saying that this is actually the first bill to come to the floor that was a completely open rule that accepted every amendment that was offered by Members. I don't know if that is true, but certainly it is true that all amendments were made in order with the rule that is presented. I guess sometimes you sort of wonder: When do people take ``yes'' for an answer in this Chamber?

Again, Mr. Byrne can have ample opportunity to make his arguments. I look forward to opposing it on the floor as I did in committee. And again, to me, it seems like a rule that all Members should really support.

So again, just to begin with Mr. DeSaulnier's description of the problem--and, again, Dr. Burgess certainly did not quibble about the fact that this is a real problem that we are talking about. In 2013, former Congressman George Miller and I asked GAO to look at this problem. They took 3 years to study it. They used Bureau of Labor statistics, Justice Department statistics, they did surveys, and they found, in fact, that we have a really very scary problem in terms of the 15 million healthcare workers who go to work every single day: They are five times more likely to be the victims of intentional assault than any other sector in the U.S. economy.

And what is most alarming is the trajectory is going up. This is not a problem which is sort of level normal operations. It is something that is actually getting worse.

There is no secret why it is getting worse. The heroin-opioid epidemic and the behavioral health problems that exist out there in society make every ambulance call that EMTs are going out for an overdose, every emergency room patient who is coming through the door, every rehab patient who is going into a facility for treatment, all of these now are high-risk situations.

And, yes, there are some hospitals that have taken proactive steps. They have used the OSHA voluntary guidelines; they have looked at the Joint Commission on Hospitals, which has endorsed those guidelines and has, again, written strong advocacy in favor of having a national standard for this problem out there for many workers. And that is why we need to act.

Again, just so we are clear, OSHA, in 2017, as the Obama administration was leaving, put it on their regulatory agenda. They took too long.

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, I would be happy to stipulate they took too long.

Since the Trump administration has taken over, in 34 months, they have not held one hearing in terms of stakeholder input. Yes, they scheduled two small business reg review hearings, canceled both, and they have not rescheduled. So, 34 months into this administration, there is nothing happening.

This bill, fundamentally, is about Congress, as it did with bloodborne pathogens, which addressed a crisis in hospitals back in the 1990s and early 2000s--which a Republican Congress, by the way, supported--put a deadline on OSHA to get a rule in place. We are a safer country because Congress took that action. That is what this bill does.

It is 42 months, by the way, in terms of the deadline for the rule and it is 1 year for the interim rule.

We accommodated Republican objections in the committee, made sure everybody gets a comment period on the interim rule, and we also carved out doctors offices, dentists offices, anybody who is not part of the healthcare facility. We shrunk the scope of this bill to healthcare facilities 200,000, which is going to reduce the mandate.

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Mr. COURTNEY. Madam Speaker, the cost per facility, which Dr. Burgess referred to, which was reduced because of the reducing of the scope of the bill, is $9,000 per facility per year.

So when we talk about the healthcare sector and how much money gets spent in it, how many patients come through the door--and these are not the small independent practice doctors offices. These are healthcare facilities. The fact of the matter is it is $9,000 a year for 2 years, then it goes down to $3,000 a year in terms of cost and expense.

What is the benefit? Lower workers' comp cost, less absenteeism, and trying to improve the morale of the people who are doing the right thing in this country in terms of providing care for those who need to be healed, consoled, and cured.

We need to pass this bill.

Again, we made Mr. Byrne's amendment in order, but we need to reject that amendment which throws it back to OSHA, whose batting average is really a disgrace in terms of getting rules through the process.

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