Donald M. Payne: “let me say this is a day when we will be talking about four quarters, and this is the first quarter of a four-quarter…”

“let me say this is a day when we will be talking about four quarters, and this is the first quarter of a four-quarter tragedy. H.R. 2728 weakens enforcement of OSHA by allowing employers to drag out the imposition of penalties and the date for taking corrective action, or to buy safety officials. The principal purpose of the Occupational Safety and Health Act is to ensure, so far as possible, every working man and woman in the Nation safe and healthy working conditions and to encourage the prompt abatement of safety and health hazards. The time frames in the act are intended to reduce the occurrence of occupational injury by ensuring that hazards are redressed in a timely fashion. H.R. 2728 creates an exception to these time frames where an employer fails to contest an OSHA citation or fails to abate a hazard in a timely manner, pursuant to section 10(b) of the Occupational Safety and Health Act. H.R. 2728 also encourages employers to litigate citations rather than to promptly correct health and safety hazards. Allowing an employer to belatedly challenge a complaint also allows an employer to delay when he or she must correct a health or safety hazard.”