I told you back in August how President Barack Obama’s decision to nominate Dr. David Michaels to be the new head of the Occupational Health and Safety Administration (OSHA) was a good one for working people:
In 2008 he published Doubt is Their Product, a book that exposed how industries such as asbestos and Big Tobacco used multi-million dollar campaigns of biased “science” to delay regulations that would have protected the public from the dangers of their products…
Dr. Michaels was also a leader in the fight to protect consumers and food workers from the dangers of exposure to diacetyl — a chemical commonly used to provide a buttery flavor in microwave popcorn…
After eight years of Bush-era neglect, I’m still getting used to seeing people getting nominated to lead government agencies who actually believe in both the letter and spirit of those agencies’ missions. So it’s exciting to see President Obama tapping someone to lead the agency responsible for worker safety who actually believes that workers should have safe workplaces, and has fought consistently to make that a reality.
So I was cheered to hear today that the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee gave bipartisan approval to pass Dr. Michaels’ nomination on to the full Senate:
The voice vote crossed party lines, with Republican Senators Isakson, Enzi, Alexander, Gregg, Murkowski, as well as all the Democratic Senators voting in favor of sending the nomination on to the full Senate. Senators Richard Burr (R-North Carolina) and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) recorded their votes as no.
Now that the HELP Committee has approved his nomination, it can be taken up by the full Senate, where hopefully it will swiftly get the approval it deserves so that Dr. Michaels can get down to the business of ensuring that every American worker has a safe and healthy workplace.
Congratulations, Dr. Michaels!