Date: 2010-07-30
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Speaker. the legislation before the House today closes a loophole in current law regarding the rights of workers to blow the whistle over unsafe conditions on offshore oil rigs. As the Obama administration told Congress. individuals working on the Outer Continental Shelf. like on the Deepwater Horizon. shockingly have zero whistleblower protections. This is unconscionable. There is no good policy reason for treating onshore and offshore workers differently. This is because the whistleblower may be the only thing thats standing between a safe workplace and a catastrophe. H.R. 5851. the Offshore Oil and Gas Worker Whistleblower Protection Act. will fix this glaring omission. Whether it is refineries. underground coal mines. or oil drilling rigs. our enforcement agencies cannot be at all workplaces at all times. Thats why its up to workers to be the eyes and the ears when these agencies cant. While the precise cause of the British Petroleum Deepwater Horizon tragedy is still under investigation. two things are clear from the media reports and from the congressional hearings. First. workers on the rig had safety concerns prior to the tragedy. And second. workers believed that they would lose their job if they raised these safety concerns with management. Not long before the Deepwater Horizon explosion. rig worker Jason Anderson told his wife that working conditions on the rig were not safe. He talked to her about getting his will and getting his affairs in order. But he wouldnt talk about his safety concerns when he was on the rig. He once told his wife he couldnt talk about the safety concerns because "the walls are too thin." Jason did not survive the explosion. He perished. along with 10 others. He left behind a wife and two young children. No worker should ever have to choose between his or her life and their livelihood. but thats a decision these workers face. As Deepwater Horizon worker Daniel Barron said. safety is only convenient for employers when they needed it. There was a lot of rhetoric that everybody had the right to call a timeout for safety. but when push comes to shove. if you called that timeout. Daniel Barron said. youre going to get fired. Mr. Speaker. this bill is narrowly tailored and will protect offshore workers who call for a timeout for safety. It simply extends the whistleblower protections to workers engaged in oil and gas exploration. drilling. production. and oil spill cleanup on the Outer Continental Shelf. It mirrors other recently enacted whistleblower laws contained in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act and the Federal Railroad Safety Act. Specifically. H.R. 5851 will prohibit discrimination against employees who report violations of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act. It protects workers who report injuries or unsafe conditions to an employer or the government. and protects workers who refuse to perform on the assigned task when there is a reasonable belief of injury or spill. The bill will also require employers to post notice and provide training that explains these rights. Finally. like other modern whistleblowing statutes. the bill provides for a fair process for resolving whistleblower complaints at the Department of Labor or through the courts if necessary. The Education and Labor Committee recently approved strong mine safety and OSHA reform bills that include nearly identical whistleblower protections. I want to thank my colleague. Congressman MARKEY. and his staff for their work on this legislation. and Mr. CONYERS and the Judiciary Committee for their constructive advice and suggestions. I again want to thank Mr. MARKEY. He offered very similar whistleblower language in the Energy and Commerce Committee. and they reported that language out as part of a larger oil spill response bill 480. I urge my colleagues to support the closing of this dangerous loophole and provide the protections for these workers. Workers in the oil and gas industry deserve a voice on safety issues regardless of whether or not they work onshore or offshore.