Date: 2014-02-27
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Mr. Chairman. I rise today to offer an amendment to this misguided piece of legislation. This bill would impose layers of red tape and erect new obstacles to protecting American lives. Congress already has the power to disapprove any rule through the Congressional Review Act. as well as through appropriations bills and other legislation. if it disagrees with a regulation. This new imposition of nearly 60 additional analytical and procedural requirements is a deliberate effort to impose a procedural choke hold on protecting American citizens. One regulation that would be affected by this is a proposal by OSHA to prevent a litany of workplace fires and explosions that are caused by combustible dusts. It has been abundantly clear for a decade that Federal regulatory action is needed to prevent combustible dust explosions and fires. My amendment would prevent todays bill from getting in the way of this muchneeded OSHA regulation. so that OSHA can continue its efforts to prevent combustible dust explosions and fires. This amendment is necessary to protect workers lives. In 2003. the Chemical Safety Board found that the existing protections to stop these explosions was grossly inadequate. A Board study has identified hundreds of combustible dust fires and explosions that have caused at least 119 fatalities and 718 injuries over a 15year period. The investigators are not alone in demanding action. Tammy Miser of Kentucky testified before Congress about her brother Shawn. who was killed in a metal dust fire at an aluminum wheel plant in Huntington. Indiana. in 2003. She told us that he was left lying there on a smoldering floor after the explosion. while aluminum dust burned through his flesh and muscle tissue. and each breath caused his internal organs to be burned even more. Shawn wasnt the first to die at work this way. and he wont be the last. It has been more than 6 years since the Imperial Sugar explosion in Georgia that killed 14 workers. That explosion resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in damages because an unchecked accumulation of sugar dust ignited and caused a chain of explosions. leveling the plant. These workplace explosions have not stopped. More recently. three workers were killed when a combustible metal dust explosion ripped through the AL Solutions metal recycling factory near Weirton. West Virginia. Flames shot in all directions. Two brothers died from the heat and smoke inside the building. Another man made it out. but he suffered burns over most of his body. He died 4 days later in a Pittsburgh hospital. all because the factory lacked adequate controls to manage metal powders. In another incident. five workers were killed in three separate events at a factory north of Nashville because an iron powder processing plant failed to abate repeated dust hazards. Each of the five left behind a wife and children. One had four children under 11. These widows have called for their government to protect them. That is where OSHA comes in. The Chemical Safety Board has recently declared that OSHAs combustible dust rule is one of the most wanted safety protections. In 2009. OSHA finally started working on a rule to reduce the risk of these explosions. The rulemaking will involve small business panels. risk assessments. public hearings. and an opportunity to comment. Despite the clear need to move forward. this bill would give special interests new ways to block these vital protections. The sad truth is that the underlying bill is nothing more than an effort to put the powerful above the lives and limbs of working families and their widows. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I reserve the balance of my time.