John W. Olver: “I want to tell this House today about someone who came to Washington to argue against this bill. His name is Jim Hale.…”

“I want to tell this House today about someone who came to Washington to argue against this bill. His name is Jim Hale. He is a resident of Chattanooga, TN. He works in the construction industry. He is opposing this bill because his brother was killed 30 years ago at the age of 23 in a construction accident. Jim will tell you that construction is a dangerous trade under the best of circumstances, and he will tell you that since he started working, it has become much safer, that it is safer because Federal rules that require employers to take steps have made it safer in these last 30 years or so. Jim believes that his brother might be alive today, that his brother would have had an opportunity to get married and raise kids if the protections that we have today had been there in the 1960's, and he feels so strongly about that that he took off work and came here to oppose this legislation that takes us back to the 19th century.”