A Republican lawmaker announced an effort Tuesday to head off an Obama administration effort to enhance an Occupational Safety and Health Administration rule that forces businesses to keep more extensive records of workplace injuries.
The effort seeks to invalidate the rule through the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to strike down unconstitutional rulemakings.
Rep. Bradley Byrne, R-Ala., chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee’s Subcommittee on Workforce Protections, introduced the resolution to undo an “unlawful power grab by the Obama administration.” Specifically, it would nullify an OSHA rule, finalized in December, that said that employers were liable for any failure to record any workplace injury or illness in the previous five years, not six months as was the previous standard.
The OSHA rulemaking was in response to a 2012 D.C. District Court ruling against the agency in a case called Volks. The court found that the agency did not have the authority to issue citations to employers for recordkeeping violations older than six months. The agency “clarified” the existing law to say that it could do that, which Byrne said went too far.
“With this rule, OSHA rewrote federal law while doing nothing to improve worker health and safety. Congress must reject this unlawful power grab and encourage the agency to adopt the responsible, proactive safety approach that America’s workers deserve,” Byrne said.
Efforts to undo rulemakings under the CRA have rarely been successful since the president can veto a CRA resolution. However, President Trump has signed several resolutions under the Congressional Review Act this year, and it is not clear if he would protect a rule finalized by President Obama’s administration.
