HYDE-SMITH, COLLEAGUES ASK LABOR DEPT. TO DITCH DEMOCRAT HEAT RULE PROPOSAL

HYDE-SMITH, COLLEAGUES ASK LABOR DEPT. TO DITCH DEMOCRAT HEAT RULE PROPOSAL

Senator Trash Biden-era OSHA Plan as Overbearing, Costly and Impracticable for Businesses and Workers

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith (R-Miss.) today added her voice to calls for the U.S. Department of Labor to drop an overbearing proposed heat rule written by the Biden administration and instead develop pragmatic solutions for businesses to follow to protect their workers from heat-related hazards.

Hyde-Smith joined U.S. Senator Bill Cassidy, M.D. (R-La.) and others in issuing a letter to Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer that outlines numerous problems in the 376-page proposed Biden-era Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) rule. The Biden-era proposal would mandate that all businesses, regardless of their safety record, size, location, or industry, comply with onerous requirements for safety staffing, record keeping, and mandatory breaks.

"We represent the states of Louisiana, Idaho, North Carolina, Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, Missouri, Texas, and Montana which have experience with high temperatures and whose workplaces have already developed strategies for protecting workers," the Senators wrote.

"Protecting workers from a common and easily understandable workplace hazard does not require a prescriptive rule that will cause confusion and, in several circumstances, may even undermine worker safety. Workers and businesses thrive when there are clear standards that are flexible, understandable, and pragmatic," the Senators continued. "The Biden administration's proposed rule fails to meet these criteria."

The lawmakers wrote that constituents identified problems with the one-size-fits-all proposal, including inefficiency, danger, threats to job opportunities, and harm to local businesses. Among the problematic mandates:

• Heat Triggers - Requiring the creation of two different levels of compliance for workers, including different monitoring schemes for indoor and outdoor work settings.
• Heat Injury and Illness Prevention Plans (HIIPP) - Requiring all businesses with 10 employees to create a HIIPP with highly detailed, site-specific information, which creates cost and compliance risks for smaller businesses with frequently changing jobsites like construction sites. HIIPPs are required to be available at worksites in a language each employee understands.
• Heat Safety Coordinators - Requires businesses to designate staff members to oversee HIIPP enforcement and compliance with numerous rule requirements, but without providing sufficient guidance as to who can fill that role, where the coordinator's duties end, and what happens if a heat safety coordinator is unavailable. As written, the rule dictates the designation of a heat safety coordinator for every 20 employees.
• Temperature Monitoring - Requires additional mandates related to temperature monitoring, but without clarity around when some areas - like boat manufacturing facilities exposed to open air - become indoor or outdoor settings, and imposes new monitoring and data storage costs on businesses.

"Nothing is more critical than our shared goal of protecting workers from workplace hazards, including heat, so they can return home from work safely," the Senators wrote Chavez-DeRemer. "We urge you to consider these challenges our constituents have raised with the proposed rule as you engage in further rulemaking and consider how to center worker safety in the ongoing discussion regarding pragmatic solutions for preventing heat-related hazards in the workplaces."

U.S. Senators Jim Risch (R-Idaho), Thom Tillis (R-N.C.), Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.), Jim Banks (R-Ind.), Mike Crapo (R-Idaho), Katie Britt (R-Ala.), Joni Ernst (R-Iowa), Ted Budd (R-N.C.), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.), and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) also signed the letter.

###