Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker the fourth bill we will debate today in this series of votes is another narrowly crafted bill that addresses a specific problem that we found in the OSHA law. In short, we strongly believe that small businesses that face meritless OSHA enforcement actions should not be prevented from defending themselves simply because they cannot afford it. The Occupational Safety And Health Small Employer Access to Justice Act levels the playing field for small businesses and encourages OSHA to better assess the merits of the case before it brings unnecessary enforcement actions to court against small businesses. Under current law, the Equal Access to Justice Act allows small business owners to recover attorney's fees if the owner successfully challenges a citation. However, if OSHA can establish that its enforcement action was 'substantially justified' or the result of 'special circumstances,' small businesses can be refused attorney fees even if OSHA loses the case in court. Historically, the law's 'substantially justified' and 'special circumstances' standards have made it easy for OSHA to prevent recovery under this broad standard, so attempts by small business owners to recover costs often merely exacerbate the financial harm caused by OSHA's dubious enforcement actions.”