James M. Talent: “Mr. Chairman, we have had discussion on the floor of the House tonight about this regulation having taken 8 years, 9…”

“Mr. Chairman, we have had discussion on the floor of the House tonight about this regulation having taken 8 years, 9 years, 12 years. We do not know how long OSHA has been working on this. Does that not tell us something about the process? It has taken a long time. Because OSHA sits like this great brooding planning agency, planning for everybody in America, trying to shove down the throats of small business people a regulation that will hurt them, that will hurt their employees, and will accomplish nothing. The small business community is not going to take that anymore. It is exactly to prevent this kind of thing that the Congress passed SBREFA 3 years ago, the Small Business Regulatory Enforcement Fairness Act. What we said to the agencies of the Federal Government is, Look, we do not want you to hurt small business people while accomplishing nothing. So listen to them. Tell them what you are going to do and listen. Do not discount what they are telling you. Make adjustments in the regulation. Work in partnership with them because they want worker safety. They are not out to hurt their people.”