Rick Allen: “Those who work in hospitals and in social services are remarkable. They provide Americans with compassion and care in…”

“Those who work in hospitals and in social services are remarkable. They provide Americans with compassion and care in some of life's most difficult situations. But every day these workers face real risk of workplace violence. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports healthcare and social service workplaces have higher rates of workplace violence. No American should feel threatened while on the job. That is why the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, has recently taken steps to work with stakeholders and industry partners to analyze the issue on how to best protect these workers. H.R. 1309 threatens this collaborative work and denies OSHA the ability to respond to feedback from the public and stakeholders. As a small business owner, I know that top-down mandates simply do not work. The bottom-up approach is the tried-and-true method. Gather input from all impacted before creating a new policy. This bill also lacks the research needed to identify and prevent workplace violence in these settings. In 2016, the Government Accountability Office said there haven't been enough studies done on the effectiveness of workplace violence prevention programs and that OSHA needed to review it further. Why do some of my colleagues think they know better than the industry, worker representatives, the scientific community, and the public? Let's also not forget that rushed mandates like this one come at a cost.…”