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Floor Speech
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Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President.
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Mr. BRAUN. If you don't keep your workplace safe--we just discussed it today in the Budget hearing--they are not going to stick with you. I think the question is about how you address those issues. I am married to a lifelong business owner in our hometown downtown that would say the same thing.
None of us who own businesses think--unless you get very, maybe large, where you think you don't need to pay attention to basic common sense and the rules--you need something, I think, that addresses the issue from here.
You know, I think that so often when there is an issue, there is just a tendency to reflex to the Federal Government. What is not considered are the costs and how it might actually play out.
In this case, I do acknowledge the issue, but I think the bill is in search of maybe a problem in the sense that we have got a mechanism that already works. I will talk about that here in a moment.
OSHA is there to find these issues and adjudicate them accordingly, and I think what this would do is not lend the marginal benefit and would end up, like many bills, adding redtape and costs.
It has two budget points of order as well. Those are complicated. I just believe there are better options.
Let me talk about this: I introduced the Voluntary Protection Program Act that has the same approach in mind, aiming at the same problem. I did it with my colleague from Colorado, Senator Bennet. It allows OSHA to work alongside employers and workers to encourage businesses without going through the redtape or the dictate of the Federal Government, and it has been successful.
It is not like we are trying to reinvent the wheel. It makes businesses exempt from bureaucratic requirements as long as, in good faith, they are trying to address the underlying issues.
Look at this. In its current form, it safeguards nearly 1 million workers, 700 local unions, and 2,200 worksites. VPP sites have shown injury and illness rates 50 percent lower than their industry averages.
This is something that we should be incorporating across the system because it is working, and it is working with an enforcement Agency and businesses solving the problem before we give an overall framework from here down.
It has been around for over 40 years, demonstrated its success. I think it would be a better approach to a problem. I acknowledge it is just not being used broadly enough. After all, it is kind of the way I think things should work first before you create a law.
I will ask for consent here shortly to pass the VPP Act. Let me add one important note that is personal to many in this Chamber. The 116th Congress was my first as a U.S. Senator, as a freshman. I was assigned to the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and I had the great honor to serve alongside Senator Mike Enzi, who was the chair of the Budget Committee. This was his bill.
Senator Enzi was known as one of the individuals here never to shirk an issue but come up with commonsense ways that wouldn't add further to our debt, add more bureaucracy, but still solve the issue. This bill addresses a program that he cared about deeply that needs to be put into statute, to where it is used more broadly, and I was honored to take the lead on this act, along with Senator Bennet.
My bill is a no-brainer. Employers get the choice to participate. It has a proven track record, and it makes workplaces safer. It is a win- win for all involved.
Therefore, I do object.
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Mr. BRAUN. Mr. President, as in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions be discharged from further consideration of S. 1081 and the Senate proceed to its immediate consideration; further, that the Braun substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time and passed; and that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
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