Tom Harkin

What do those grants do?

I am not sure if I agree with you that we should not be giving grants.

I do not know why--what is the reason for a 32 percent cut when we have over 60 percent unemployment among people with disabilities.

There is a proposed cut in funds for the Office of Disability Employment Policy by $9 million.

The unemployment rate among people with disabilities is over 60 percent.

A 9.4 percent cut in this budget is--it is not good.

I think that has been about right. Maybe a little bit longer.

I am concerned about parceling things out and sort of taking the focus off.

I do not want to see this parceled out.

Well, I would respectfully disagree with you on that.

I want to find out who this performance review board is, and how they are picked, and how many.

Who makes up that performance review board anyway? How are they appointed? How are they picked? Who picks? How many are there?

I am concerned that you are undergoing efforts to discontinue the relationship that Labor has had with the International Labor Organization.

OSHA's own estimates indicate that requiring employers to pay for basic personal protective equipment such as safety goggles and earplugs could prevent workers from suffering nearly 50,000 workplace injuries per year.

It has now been 8 years since a standard was first proposed. Despite repeated assurances, OSHA has let this fundamental worker safety requirement languish.

When will you issue the standard that OSHA first proposed in 1999? Given the opposition to this proposal by special industry interests, what assurances can you give us that you will not weaken the final standard in comparison to the 1999…

It has been more than 16 months since the mining tragedies at Sago and Alma.

The United Mineworkers Association... issued a report recently stating that if MSHA had followed their legislative mandates, all 12 Sago miners would have survived.

I do not know why we are having so much trouble with ergonomics. I just do not know why.

I was told that you changed the reporting form and eliminated the column that had been used to report musculoskeletal disorders.

Can you provide the committee with that information, too, on this?

I am just asking if you had done any looking at getting rid of that column.

Well, please take a look at it, because these guidelines are just dead.

I hope that you will provide us with some plans to step up these enforcement efforts.

Well, why one citation in the last 2 years, when you have all these injuries? Why only one citation?