From the above, we see who the major players in the Department of Labor and OSHA are, and what they would like to see the agency become.

What changes have been made so far?

 

• President Obama has nominated M. Patricia Smith to serve as Labor Department Solicitor, the head attorney in the Labor Department. Ms. Smith served as the Commissioner of the New York Labor Department, where she earned a reputation as a tough enforcer of state labor laws. During her confirmation hearing, she told a Senate Committee that she would bring a philosophy of “proactive enforcement” to the Labor Department, including OSHA.
• President Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget calls for a 9.9 percent increase in OSHA’s budget. This is a $50.6 million dollar increase over 2009. This money is to be used for the hiring of 130 new OSHA inspectors, and contains $227.1 million for enforcement programs. The budget numbers for federal compliance assistance ($73.4 million) pale in comparison. As Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis recently stated, enforcement is a “very important part of [her] vision.” In case there was any doubt as to the direction of OSHA, she also recently stated: “Let me be clear: the Department of Labor is back in the enforcement business.”RECAP: $227 million for ENFORCEMENT, $74 million for ASSISTANCE.
• The House or Representatives reintroduced the “Protecting America’s Workers Act,” H.R. 2067, which will severely increase penalties on employers for OSHA violations, and which will otherwise increase employer responsibilities under the Occupational Safety and Health Act.H.R. 2067 Summary:
  http://tinyurl.com/yfcxaza
  
• OSHA Recordkeeping Initiative (see article below). This is actually a rather strange development. OSHA has always pointed to reductions in employee injuries as justifying their existence and the costs of compliance that are passed on to the employers of the USA. Now, OSHA is on record claiming that employers have underreported accidents. If they are right, and the new initiative results in an increase in reported injuries, then OSHA is, in effect, undercutting their own prior claims of success…

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