Roy Blunt: “this amendment, as has been read, transfers the increase in OSHA to vocational and adult education. In the last debate I…”

“this amendment, as has been read, transfers the increase in OSHA to vocational and adult education. In the last debate I believe I heard the gentlewoman from Connecticut suggest that we need to challenge the House to spend more money on training. This amendment meets that challenge, and may be more timely even because of that challenge, that we spend more of our money on training. I think increasing spending in OSHA, as opposed to increasing spending in vocational and adult education, really just does not make sense to me, so this amendment is to transfer that increase. OSHA would be frozen. OSHA is being studied. There are field hearings on OSHA. There is nobody who is a member of this body who does not believe that OSHA needs to be significantly restructured in the way it does its job. At the same time, vocational and adult education have been incredibly successful programs that are actually funded below the 1997 levels. In a bill that funds programs that are not even authorized, vocational education and adult education are funded below last year's levels. I find that unacceptable. In fact, as we match these two things together, the best place to ensure workplace safety is in training. The best place to prevent accidents is before they happen. The best place to have workers prepare to be safe workers is not on the job, but before they get on the job, and vocational education has a track record of doing that effectively.”