On July 26, the Coalition for Workplace Safety sent a letter to the House Education and Labor Committee opposing HR 2193, the Asuncion Valdivia Heat Illness and Fatality Prevention Act, and urging the committee to reject the bill.
Our letter explained that “heat exposure does not lend itself to a rushed, arbitrarily imposed process.” This bill, however, would “circumvent the opportunity for the regulated community to provide input and comments,” “boot strap in state plan requirements that are based on one state’s regional, demographic or political considerations,” and bypass good-governance requirements implemented by various federal statutes. The bill would also expand the amount of time OSHA has to bring a citation from the current six months to four years from the occurrence of the violation, create a private right of action for an employee to sue an employer, and force the Occupational Safety and Health Review Commission to accept OSHA’s interpretation of this act, despite OSHRC’s intended purpose of being an independent special issue tribunal.
Our letter encourages the Committee to review CWS’ comments to OSHA on the agency’s heat illness advanced notice of proposed rulemaking. Those comments can be reviewed here.