CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Some proposed changes to the American Energy and Infrastructure Jobs Act would weaken federal safety enforcement regulations and put workers and residents where hazardous chemicals and materials are produced at risk, opponents say.
In the next few days, the full House of Representatives is likely to vote on Republican-backed revisions made to the existing bill by the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
Those revisions were approved by a 29-24 vote after a committee meeting that lasted until 3 a.m. on Feb. 3. All Democrats on the Transportation Committee opposed the revised legislation. All Republicans on the committee voted in favor of the changes except for Rep. Tom Petri, R-Wis.
Those changes would limit the jurisdiction of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration to protect workers who handle hazardous materials, by transferring regulatory power to the Department of Transportation.
Under the new version of the legislation, warnings issued about risks and control over hazardous substances would be "less protective of workers safety that those issued by OSHA," according to Reps. George Miller and Lynn Woolsey, both D-Calif.
They outlined their concerns in a Feb. 1 letter to House Transportation Committee Chairman Rep. John Mica, R-Fla., and the committee's ranking minority member, Rep. Nick Rahall, D-W.Va.
Rahall had no comment on the pending legislation last week.
In their letter, Miller and Woolsey warned about weakening regulations that control the "safety management of highly hazardous chemicals."
Federal rules overseeing the handling, storing and transportation of other hazardous materials would also be weakened, they said. Those materials include "compressed gasses, flammable and combustible liquids, explosives and blasting agents, liquefied petroleum gases and anhydrous ammonia."
The 800-page bill containing those changes was sent to members of the House Transportation committee only a few days before it was rushed through the committee for approval.
The legislation is likely to go to the floor of the House for approval within the next week.
The revised bill would also eliminate OSHA's power to regulate "communications requirements at fixed facilities, including container labeling and other forms of warnings, material safety data sheets and employee training."
The Transportation Department, Miller and Woolsey argue, does not have the capability OSHA has to evaluate and respond to "hazmat [hazardous materials]-related complaints."
The revisions approved by the committee also add a provision that "strips the law's worker safety protections from workers who may be a contractor employee instead of a direct-hire employee."
Miller and Woolsey urges the Transportation Committee to "delete" that provision from the new version of the legislation.
Their Feb. 1 letter also questions revisions that expand the definitions of "transportation" and "transport."
Those revisions "could even displace OSHA from asserting safety oversight of hazardous material handling inside of fixed industrial facilities," if those materials have already been loaded for transportation to another location.
The proposed changes would eliminate OSHA oversight regulating the "storage of hazardous materials from the time the hazardous material is loaded for purposes of movement until the hazardous material is unloaded at its destination, including during en route movement," Miller and Woolsey wrote.
Reach Paul J. Nyden at pjny...@wvgazette.com or 304-348-5164.
