Maryland’s appropriations committee gave the State’s OSHA program a chance to admit it doesn’t have the resources needed to do its job. The agency missed the softball questions.
Now available is a first-of-its kind database of U.S. worker fatality cases which were criminally prosecuted. The collection currently contains 77 cases from 17 states, and offers links to court records, investigation files, and news stories from each case.
A Center for Progressive Reform analysis of the Trump administration’s first regulatory agenda finds delay and abandonment of dozens of rules designed to protect public health.
President Trump made good today on a ludicrous campaign pledge: For every one regulation issued by a federal agency, they will have to offset the cost by eliminating two existing regulations. “Want a new stop sign in your neighborhood? Fine, give up two stop signs somewhere else.” What a hair-brain idea.
Congress fixed a loophole and OSHA penalties will now be adjusted regularly to account for inflation. But if Labor Secretary Perez is serious about leveling the playing field for those who follow the law, he should consider what’s being called OSHA’s “discount on death.”
It’s time to get passed thinking that workplace fatalities are “just accidents.” A new toolkit by the Center for Progressive Reform will help worker- and community-coalitions encourage prosecutors to review on-the-job fatalities for possible criminal charges.
Testifying before the House Committee on Oversight & Government Reform, OIRA chief Howard Shelanski was criticized from both sides of the aisle for his office’s lack of transparency in handling reviews of agencies’ regulatory actions.
The newly created Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on Oversight, Federal Rights and Agency Action held today its first hearing. Witnesses described the toll on public health and safety when the regulatory process is paralyzed by powerful interests and required analyses with no proven benefits.
Subsistence wages, unsafe working and living conditions and hard labor describe the work life of many U.S. farm workers. The Senate’s bi-partisan immigration reform plan may help to change this reality.
The report, “At the company’s mercy,” should serve as the new Secretary of Labor’s roadmap to improve working conditions for temporary and other precarious workers.