Political Quotes

“as chairman of the Small Business Committee and chairman of the Regulatory Relief Task Force, I am looking forward to the opportunity to discuss the problems at OSHA and some potential solutions. I believe we will have this debate in earnest after next January 1, when Congress will finally have to comply with the Congressional Accountability Act. For the first time, thanks to the new Republican Congress, we will ourselves get a feel for what we have foisted upon the private sector for a generation, through OSHA regulations and the Fair Labor Standards Act and many others from which we have until now exempted ourselves. This amendment focuses attention on the Gregg-Bond OSHA reform bill sooner than I expected. When the Senator from New Hampshire and I introduced the OSHA reform bill in April, we tried to address many of the problems we had heard about from our constituents. And believe me, we have had complaints. We have had complaints of OSHA overreach and OSHA overzealousness from virtually every sector of employment: from bakeries to construction companies to restaurants and retailers to roofers to colleges and universities--we have heard about problems. Now, I don't for 1 minute advocate abolition of the agency. I believe they are charged with an important public purpose: that is, protecting the health and safety of the American worker. No one disputes the importance of the purpose of the agency. But in this case, enforcement has been a problem.”