Date: 2008-04-30
Speaker: GEORGE MILLER (democrat)
Chamber: H
State: California

Madam Speaker and Members of the House. this is a very serious piece of legislation and a very important piece of legislation. The idea that we would delay this until some time that the Secretary of Labor could make some certification about its impact on food. costs is really unacceptable. . Lets look at the record of the Secretary of Labor. Since January 1980 until 2006. there were 281 explosions in these kinds of facilities due to dust. Seven hundred eighteen people were injured and 119 died in those explosions. One hundred nineteen breadwinners were killed in those explosions. Thats the result of a study from the Chemical Safety Board of whose members are all appointed by President George W. Bush. an independent agency that may be the gold standard in terms of iudependent review of accidents. They then recommended that OSHA adopt dust standards. OSHA did nothing. Did nothing. No enforceable standards were adopted by that point. No enforceable standards at all. And then in February 2008. the Imperial Sugar plant exploded. In the meantime. 67 explosions took place since the Chemical Safety Board recommended the standard. Five hundred seventyfive injuries and 14 deaths took place before OSHA did anything. And the Chemical Safety Board recommendations continue to say there are no enforceable standards with respect to dust. Not only does it devastate the lives of these individuals and their families and the community. it devastates the facility. a facility here that is key to the commerce of that area. So talk about an impact on price in a tight market when these facilities start pumping up. The feed and grain people. theyre under their own standards. And what is their analysis of that standard? That it drove technologies. it drove better design. and better productivity in their markets. Thats their findings. Theyre not implicated in these standards. What happened there? Eight people were killed in the explosion. 20 were put into medically induced comas for a number of weeks. 5 of those died. and 3 are still in the hospital. Since the Chemical Safety Board made its recommendation. there have been 67 explosions. and OSHA never found the urgency to protect these workers. Now to come along and to be so cynical as to suggest that if we could just keep killing the workers. the price of food will stay down. You know. its funny. I read the papers. read the business journal. read The Wall Street Journal. and theyre talking about how the price of food has driven the profits of the grain companies. but when they talk about why its gone up. it says. "The crisis stems from a combination of heightened demand for food from fastgrowing developing countries like China and India. low grain stockpiles caused "by bad weather. rising fuel prices and the increasing amount of land used to grow crops for ethanol" and others. Some people say its because Zimbabwe has quit producing food under the corrupt regime of Mr. Mugabe. so Africa has a double problem. I see the Governor of Texas. Mr. Rick Perry. thinks we ought to cut back on ethanol production. He doesnt think we ought to keep killing American workers. Nowhere in this paper. The Wall Street Journal mind you. nowhere in this paper. when you read about food prices. do you see any mention that we ought to continue to subsidize food prices by blowing up processing plants and killing and injuring workers. Nowhere do you see that except. perhaps. in this amendment.* l 1830 We ought not to accept this amendment. These workers and this critical industry are entitled to this protection. And the facts on the ground are: The last time we put in a standard was for the feed and grain industry. and it has turned out to be wildly successful. Why is it wildly successful? Because injuries went down 40 percent. fatalities went down 60 percent. explosions went down 60 percent. Dont you think we know enough now to think that these other workers in this industry are entitled to this protection? But OSHA has done nothing. OSHA has done nothing. And if OSHA is not going to act. we must. In this administration. OSHA has only acted when prodded by the courts or the Congress. never on their own. Never on their own have they suggested that they were going to go out and do this. Even after the recommendation of a presidentially appointed commission to look at these kinds of accidents. appointed by this President. theyve chosen to do nothing. And its important. its important to these workers. its important to the Congress. John Barrow and I have put together legislation that works for the industry. Weve consulted with the industry. Weve sat down with the industry. Weve sat down with OSHA. And we ought to oppose this motion to recommit in the name of the workers. in the name of their families. in the name of our Nation. we owe it to protect these workers.