Katie Porter: “I rise in very reluctant opposition to my leaders' amendment. As chairman of the subcommittee that funds OSHA, I do not…”

“I rise in very reluctant opposition to my leaders' amendment. As chairman of the subcommittee that funds OSHA, I do not believe that it is possible, by offering an amendment to cut $3.5 million out of the salaries and expenses account at OSHA, that we are going to be able to get at the regulation dealing with ergonomics. We may be able to make a statement that way, but the effect of the amendment will be to take the salaries and expenses account that is, after being amended in the subcommittee markup down to the fiscal 1994 level, below that level. In making the mark, I might say to the gentleman from Texas, we did not touch salaries and expenses in any line item in our bill because we felt that that would be unfair. We are well into and mostly through the fiscal year. Even people who work for the government have a right to know that they are going to have a job and be able to afford to educate their children for the rest of the fiscal year. We just did not think that it was fair to them to put them in a position where a rescission would cut off their livelihood, very possibly, in the middle of the fiscal year, so we did not cut it. I think it is unfair to Federal employees. For those reasons, I do reluctantly oppose the amendment.”