제 목 : Congress Modestly Adds OSHA Money
일 자 : 1997년 12월
제공처 : Safety ＆ health(OSHA UPDATE)
Congress Modestly Adds OSHA Money
Congressional appropriations for the fiscal year ending Sept. 3O, 1998,
would boost Occupational Safety and Health Administration funds
slightly, to $336.2 million from $324 million in fiscal l997.
The new amount was specified in two broad spending bills, one
approved by the House and the other headed for the Senate floor at
press time.The total was $11.3 mi11ion less than the Clinton adminis-
tration had requested, and mainly means less Money for OSHA enforcement.
"Given all the land mines in the process, [the budget] is coming out
in reasonable shape" says Margaret Seminario, AFL-CIO safety and
health director.
The House bill puts more emphasis on compliance assistance for
employers, but less on enforcement than the benate measure. "It would
be nice to have more money directed toward consultation, rather than
enforcement," says Susan Nussbaum, counsel for the Labor Policy Asso-
ciation, a group oflarge employers.
But a spate of House Republican amendments designed to shift more
money to nonenforcement programs was rejected.
Rep. John Porter, R-III., who chairs the House Labor/Health and
Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee, noted OSHA's recent moves
away from rigid enforcement." We should be giving them every encourage-
ment possible, because OSHA is definitely a changeded and changing or-
ganization," he says.
|
