OSHA marks 40th anniversary with tough stance against funding cuts

The federal agency that oversees worker health and safety is celebrating its 40th anniversary this month by preparing for a showdown with lawmakers focused on slashing the deficit and cutting red tape.

The law that created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration had broad bipartisan support when it was signed into law by President Nixon on April 28, 1971, OSHA Assistant Secretary David Michaels reminded an audience at the liberal Center for American Progress on Thursday. At the time, he said, 14,000 Americans were dying on the job every year — versus 4,400 today — and workers did not even have the right to know what kind of toxic chemicals they were working with every day.

"The empirical evidence is clear: OSHA doesn't kill jobs, it stops jobs from killing workers," he said. "But despite this evidence, and despite the progress we've made, we are today engaged in a great debate over worker protections, over the benefits and costs of regulations, over the taxpayer dollars that this society is willing to invest to ensure that our nation's workers will be able to come home safely after a hard day's work."

The comments come as House Oversight Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) has launched a massive review of government regulations and their impact on job creation. Simultaneously, House Republicans have passed a 2012 budget that reduces spending at government agencies below 2008 levels, which could lead to layoffs and delay pending worker-safety regulations.

John Podesta, president and CEO of the Center for American Progress, introduced Michaels by saying OSHA should not be allowed to become a "bargaining chip" in the deficit debate.

"The mission, of course, is never complete," he said, "but it is being fulfilled."

Michaels ended his short overview of OSHA's history by updating the audience on the challenges still facing the agency: a slow regulatory process, insufficient fines, too few inspectors and too many workers who still don't know their rights or feel they can defend them without retribution.

"The creators of the OSHA law intended to ensure that workers have an important role in ensuring safe working conditions," Michaels said. "But sadly, the whistle-blower language in the OSHA law is old, and it's weak."

He announced that OSHA will soon be proposing new standards for the creation of a new prevention process to help employers proactively identify workplace hazards, based on the experience of 15 states. And he announced that next week, the administration will commemorate workers who died on the job with a tree planted in front of the Department of Labor's Constitution Avenue headquarters.