Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, whistleblower protections are a longstanding part of our Federal safety and health laws. Simply put, they protect workers' ability to speak freely about dangers in the workplace. They allow working men and women to protect themselves and their coworkers. The ultimate goals of our worker safety laws should be that no worker ever needs to blow the whistle. We need a culture of safety in our workplaces, a system in which employers have the information and resources they need to comply with the law and avoid unnecessary risks to workers' health and safety. But in those rare instances where employers are not following the law and workers' safety is at risk, we offer protections to those individuals who speak up. These protections are widely available to workers and enforced by the Whistleblower Protection Program at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. However, we recently became aware that a gap may exist in those protections. Safety on offshore oil rigs is overseen by the Coast Guard and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, unlike most workplaces where safety is overseen by OSHA. As a result, it is not clear whether these workers are covered by the OSH Act's whistleblower protections or any of the 17 other statutes enforced by OSHA's Whistleblower Protection Program.…”