Top Democrats are urging the Labor Department's Office of Inspector General (IG) to audit the department's process for crafting a controversial rule that eases child labor restrictions to allow teenagers working in healthcare to independently operate powered patient lifts, heightening an already contentious workplace safety dispute.
The House is poised to vote Jan. 8 on Democrats' legislation to reauthorize for two years the Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) industrial facility security program which rejects GOP calls for changes to the program, though the effort faces uncertain prospects amid the ongoing government shutdown.
The Senate unanimously confirmed President Donald Trump's nominees to lead EPA's toxics and international offices in the final hours of the 115th Congress, but his nominee to lead OSHA and the EPA office overseeing facility safety and waste cleanups remain stalled.
OSHA is expected to face significant attention in the 116th Congress, which begins Jan. 3, with newly-empowered House Democrats planning a series of oversight inquiries into the Trump administration's regulatory rollbacks and the GOP-controlled Senate facing a heated battle to confirm the agency's long-stalled nominee to lead the agency.
Two House Democrats responsible for funding the Labor Department are urging officials to craft by next April a “comprehensive strategy on enforcement” to address concerns about child labor safety in the agriculture sector after a recent watchdog report found the sector is responsible for a disproportionate number of child labor fatalities.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) has found a small decrease in the rate and number of workplace fatalities and injuries in 2017 but the data show a continued spike of 25 percent or more in workplace deaths in the mining, quarrying, and oil and gas extraction sector, as well as fatalities due to falls and overdoses.
Echoing concerns raised by a 2017 congressional watchdog report, a top House Democrat is urging OSHA to investigate whether a Texas poultry plant violated the agency's sanitation standard and to conduct inspections “where compliance offices speak not only with management, but workers and their representatives.”
Industry proponents of a permanent waiver from OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standards for agricultural retailers are lamenting Congress' decision to drop House language from the Farm Bill that would have codified the exemption.
Lawmakers negotiating a new five-year Farm Bill have agreed to Democrats' demands to drop language originally included in the House version of the bill that aimed to codify a permanent waiver from OSHA's process safety management (PSM) standards for retail facilities, Capitol Hill sources say.
OSHA and other Labor Department (DOL) officials are agreeing with Government Accountability Office (GAO) calls to bolster a suite of protections to prevent injury and illness among child laborers in agriculture and other sectors, strengthening Democrats' efforts to scrutinize Trump administration plans to ease child-labor rules for teens in the healthcare sector.