Political Quotes

“I thank Senator Breaux for his efforts on ergonomics. These injuries are happening in this country and we need to do something about them. I appreciated the conciseness with which he made a statement during the last debate we had on ergonomics. I wish his bill more closely followed the statement he made. I suspect there is leeway in there to do exactly what he said when he made that statement, and I think this comes fairly close. I hope we will be able to work together to make some changes in what is in his amendment. Most of all, what I hope is that the Senators who are interested in this issue will work with me. I am the subcommittee chairman for Employment, Safety and Training. It is all of the labor issues. It includes the ergonomics issue. I had planned to begin a process of holding some hearings. I already have my staff members looking at past efforts--and there are supposed to be 10 or 12 years of efforts on ergonomics already--to see what was done and where it went wrong before. Also, I am scheduling some meetings with Secretary Chao. I am pleased to have other people involved in those meetings with me. We need to come up with a mechanism that will actually prevent injuries. I am not interested in the mechanism that just does paperwork or just puts costs on business. I know the people who submitted this amendment--particularly Senator Breaux--are not interested in having that either.”