Facebook Twitter Email
MARCH 7, 2001

A set of environmental health and safety regulations Senator Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) characterized as "twisted and bloated" fell prey to partisan politics on Tuesday with a 56 to 44 Senate vote killing them.

"Congress is on the right track in nullifying this two-pound, 608 page document," said Domenici.

The move is the first attempt by a Republican-controlled Congress to act on a number of controversial rules and regulations advanced in the final months of the Clinton administration. From the roadless forest initiative to a ban on snowmobiles in national parks, mostly Republican lawmakers have attacked the regulations as broad and potentially unconstitutional.

For the most part, however, Congress has done little to reverse any. That changed with a spirited debate on the Senate floor yesterday.

Known as the Ergonomics Program Standard, the rules require employers to provide employees with information on musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs) such as carpal tunnel syndrome, a condition which can occur from repeated computer keyboard usage. They also require employers to change workplace environments if necessary and provide disability compensation.

Expected to affect some 102 million workers at 6.1 million work sites throughout the country, a number of business leaders have criticized the regulations as costly and launched a lobbying effort to have them repealed. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), an agency of the Department of Labor, estimated it would cost employers $4.5 billion to enact -- a figure business leaders disputed.

But health experts and labor advocates said repealing the rules would only hurt Americans. The American Nurses Association yesterday said they were "appalled" by the Senate's actions and said the rules are needed to prevent back injuries and MSDs.

Employing a never-used before law passed in 1996, the Senate voted to kill the regulations under the Congressional Review Act. The law allows Congress to repeal any agency regulations and also bars similar rules from being enacted in the future.

The issue will now go before the House and a vote is expected this week. Republican leaders predicted the House would follow the Senate's lead before sending them onto President Bush for his final say.

All Republicans voted to repeal them yesterday. They were joined by six Democrats: Max Baucus (Montana), John Breaux (La.), Ernest Hollings (S.C.), Mary Landrieu (La.), Blanche Lincoln (Ark.), and Zell Miller (Georgia).

Get the Regulations:
Ergonomics Final Rule (OSHA November 2000)

Relevant Links:
OSHA - http://www.osha.gov