Lynn C. Woolsey: “Each year, 74 electrical workers covered under this rule are killed on the job. Another 444 are severely injured. OSHA…”

“Each year, 74 electrical workers covered under this rule are killed on the job. Another 444 are severely injured. OSHA is authorized to regulate a hazard when the risk of fatality is more than 1 in a 1,000. The fatality rate for workers covered under this OSHA rule is 14 times that level. Full compliance would eliminate 79 percent of these fatalities and injuries. Madam Chair, the one-size-fits-all approach of this bill will block a commonsense, cost-effective rule that produces an estimated $4 in benefits for every dollar in cost. OSHA's proposed update would provide an estimated $100 million in savings every single year. While the authors of this bill argue that the President can seek a waiver from Congress to allow the rule, I'm not buying it. As we saw with the so-called ``comma bill'' proposed by Mr. Sensenbrenner a number of years ago, it took three sessions of Congress just to fix a harmless typo. We all know that when a special interest wants to stop something around here, there are countless ways to win. If this bill is not amended, Madam Chair, Congress will be sentencing scores of workers every year to preventible electrocutions and to burns. I ask for adoption of this amendment, and I reserve the balance of my time.”