Joel Hefley: “the main goal of the Contract With America is to make Government smaller, less costly and less intrusive. And there is…”

“the main goal of the Contract With America is to make Government smaller, less costly and less intrusive. And there is probably no better way to do this than to address the question of OSHA. When OSHA first issued its safety regulations in the 1970's one provision required workers on bridges to wear orange life vests. As Dr. Kip Viscusi commented in 1983, ``The ineptness of OSHA's enforcement is epitomized by the fact that one company fined for violating this standard maintained that this requirement was unrelated to worker safety because the channel under the bridge had been diverted.'' There was no water. It was dry. Yet the company was fined because these workers did not have life vests on. But they needed a trampoline, not a life vest. Some idiot at OSHA decided they should fine the company anyway. Listen to the concerns of America's employers and workers, and it is obvious OSHA has not improved since Dr. Viscusi wrote those words. In this Congress I introduced a measure in order to do this. It is time for real OSHA reform now.”