By Lizette Alvarez with Steve Greenhouse
Using an
untested legislative weapon, Senate Republicans plan next week to try to
repeal a far-reaching set of rules on workplace injuries that have been
fiercely opposed by business groups.
Senate
Republicans say they have the votes to kill the regulations, which were
issued by President Bill Clinton three months ago and require businesses
to provide conditions in factories and offices that protect workers from
repetitive strain injuries. The House is expected to take up the measure
soon after.
President
Bush reacted favorably to the proposal to overturn the rules at a
meeting with Congressional Republican leaders last Tuesday, aides said.
The rules
were intended to protect those like secretaries, seamstresses and
slaughterhouse workers from a variety of injuries, including tendonitis,
slipped disks and carpal tunnel syndrome.
If the
Senate and House reverse the regulations, which cover 102 million
workers at six million sites, Republicans would hand business groups a
major victory on an issue they have battled for a decade. The
legislative move also comes at a time when President Bush is trying to
quell an effort by business groups to bog down his tax proposal with
corporate tax breaks.
Business
groups estimate that the rule would cost anywhere from $18 billion to
$120 billion to implement, figures that are disputed by the Occupational
Safety and Health Administration. The agency, which is part of the
Department of Labor, said the rules would cost $4.5 billion to put into
effect, and Clinton administration officials said that the rules would
save employers money with gains in productivity. Business leaders also
describe the regulations as onerous and overly broad, adding that the
rules would drive up costs for all businesses and push some into
bankruptcy.
Anticipating
next wee’s face-off, business groups like the United States Chamber of
Commerce and labor groups like the A.F.L.-C.I.O. have sent out
legislative alerts urging their members to flood Congress with letters,
e-mail messages and telephone calls The battle is likely to intensify in
the coming days.
Business
groups stepped up their campaign to kill the regulations, which took
effect on January 16, before President Bush took office.
"We have
been doing labor issues for over 15 years, and this is probably the most
important to the business community," said Randy Johnson, vice president
for labor policy at the United State Chamber of Commerce. "It would cost
businesses so much to comply and it would be money down the drain."
Organized
labor fought hard for the rules, which labor leaders call the most
important job safety rules adopted since the Occupational Safety and
Health Act was enacted three decades ago.
"What’s
happening is stunning," said Peg Seminario, the A.F.L.-C.I.O.’s director
for health and safety. "This rule is 10 years in the making, with 10
weeks of public hearings on it and now they want to wipe it out with not
even one hearing and less than 10 hours of debate. That’s about as
undemocratic a process as you can get."
While
conceding they face an uphill battle, Democratic lawmakers and union
leaders said they hope to stop Republican efforts. The votes in both the
Senate and House are expected to be very close.
Republicans
say defeating the bill would be more difficult than usual. That is
because Senator Don Nickles of Oklahoma, the Republican whip, plans to
use the Congressional Review Act, which he co-sponsored into law in
1996.
The act
gives Congress 60 days to reject final regulations issued by federal
agencies. If the resolution is signed by the president, it would prevent
the regulations from being reissued in "substantially the same form."
To invoke
the act, Senator Nickles expects to offer a joint-resolution of
disapproval, which can be debated for 10 hours. But the resolution
cannot be filibustered-the Democrats’ chief weapon in blocking
legislation and requires 51 votes to pass.
Senator
Nickles is moving the process along even more swiftly be getting 30
senators to sign a petition that bypasses the committee process.
Because the
act has never been used before in Congress, Democrats and Republicans
alike are headed into unchartered waters. Even the term "substantially
the same form," which is the linchpin for blocking the rules, is open to
conjecture, although Democrats say it would chill all future rule making
by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies.
Both the
House and Senate passed a measure that would have blocked the rules last
year.
"Republicans
intend to sound the death knell for protections from ergonomic
injuries-the most significant safety and health problem that workers
face today," said Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, the
ranking Democrat on the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and
Pensions.
Mr. Clinton
adopted the rules even though Congress was calling for further study to
determine whether there was adequate scientific basis for ergonomics
rules to reduce the 1.8 million injuries reported each year. Elizabeth
Dole, who was labor secretary under former President George Bush, set
procedures in motion 1990 to establish these rules.
Republicans
also hope to send a warning shot next week with their use of the
Congressional Review Act to overturn the rules. Just before leaving
office in January, President Clinton issued a long list of regulations,
many of which infuriated Republicans who saw it as a clear effort to
circumvent Congress.
"It’s not
only very important that this rule be rescinded, but it’s also important
that Congress begin to assert itself in these areas," said
Representative Roy D Blunt, the Missouri Republican who is chief deputy
whip. "We’ve avoided too many regulations by acting helpless in the face
of regulators."
To combat
Republican efforts to reverse the rules, the A.F.L.-C.I.O. held a news
conference here today that featured several workers who suffer from
ergonomics injuries.
But
businesses groups are rallying their own members, who say they are more
dedicated than ever to getting the rules reversed now that there is a
Republican in the White House. "I think it’s going to be a huge fight,"
said Ed Gilroy of the National Coalition of Ergonomics, an association
of 300 business groups.
