I’ve written before about the Bush Labor Department’s glacial pace when it comes to taking action to protect workers’ health and safety. So naturally I was surprised to see a story in today’s Washington Post about how they are suddenly moving like lightning.
What are they moving so quickly on? Making it easier for corporations to expose workers to toxic chemicals:
Political appointees at the Department of Labor are moving with unusual speed to push through in the final months of the Bush administration a rule making it tougher to regulate workers’ on-the-job exposure to chemicals and toxins.
The agency did not disclose the proposal, as required, in public notices of regulatory plans that it filed in December and May. Instead, Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao’s intention to push for the rule first surfaced on July 7, when the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) posted on its Web site that it was reviewing the proposal, identified only by its nine-word title…
The department’s speed in trying to make the regulatory change contrasts with its reluctance to alter workplace safety rules over the past 7 1/2 years. In that time, the department adopted only one major health rule for a chemical in the workplace, and it did so under a court order.
It’s telling that this is the sort of thing they are hurrying to ensure they get done before George Bush leaves office, don’t you think?
UPDATE (4:30PM): House Education and Labor Committee Chairman Rep. George Miller comes out swinging:
Today, Senator Kennedy and I demanded that Labor Secretary Elaine Chao withdraw this rule immediately and turn over all communications with outside special interests and other documents relating to proposed rule. You can read the letter here.
As we state in our letter, it is disturbing that the Department of Labor is moving this proposal over the objections of career staff in the relevant health and safety agencies. Such career staff have the objective, technical expertise and experience to fully understand the proposal’s implications for workers.
The Bush administration will stop at nothing to rush through a secret rule that will tie the hands of health and safety experts when responding to our nation’s critical health and safety threats.
But, that’s really no surprise at all.
