February 10, 2011 at 05:28 AM
Industry groups strongly back a House GOP proposal to broaden the scope of federal agencies' small business regulatory review procedures to analyze potential economic ripple effects on small entities not necessarily covered by the standards being analyzed, in what would amount to a substantial change in how OSHA and other agencies evaluate the impact of their regulations. Health and safety advocates as well as congressional Democrats staunchly oppose the bill because of what they say would be an adverse weakening of both existing and new federal regulations, and argue that the legislation coul