OSHA to issue politically charged ergonomics rule this month

The back and forth over the primary issue holding up a deal on the FY2001 Labor-HHS appropriations bill--the Clinton administration's controversial workplace ergonomics rule--took another turn today as Democrats said it would be published by Nov. 14, the day members would likely return to finish fiscal 2001 spending bills under a continuing resolution expected to pass the House Thursday.

Democrats, who have been pushing to move forward on the regulation to protect workers against repetitive motion injuries, are claiming a victory over those who have tried to delay it with language in the Labor-HHS spending bill.

To stop the rule, the GOP will "have to do what they don't want to do," said a spokeswoman for House Appropriations ranking member David Obey, D-Wis., which is to force the next president to publicly overturn the rule once it is already published.

But a GOP leadership aide said Republicans have always been prepared for the Labor Department to finalize the rule by the end of this year. He said that what GOP leaders are seeking is clear language that reflects the "conceptual agreement" reached by a bipartisan group of appropriators and White House officials early Monday morning--namely, that the rule could not be implemented or enforced until June 1, the date by which the next President could decide to kill the rule.

Conversations between top GOP aides and the White House over the exact wording on ergonomics continued today, although a final resolution now appears unlikely if Congress leaves town until Nov. 14.

But House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, suggested the issue is not closed. He declined to say what GOP presidential nominee George W. Bush would do about the ergonomics rule if he were elected President, but noted, "We're still in session."

On Tuesday, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health Charles Jeffress denied the plan to release the ergonomics rule before the end of the year is political.

"It isn't about politics or doing something so the President can't change things. This is about working Americans," he said at a Democratic news conference Tuesday on the breakdown of budget talks. Appropriators said that once language to implement the ergonomics deal is approved by all sides, they should be able to file the Labor-HHS conference report.

That would leave the even more politically volatile issue of immigration as the last major sticking point to resolve before sending the FY2001 Commerce-Justice-State conference report to the President, although any new Commerce-Justice-State language would be attached to the Labor-HHS spending conference report.

Democrats worried that the break until Nov. 14 would take away the impetus to compromise and would reopen closed issues.

Even Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Tex., an ardent opponent of the ergonomics rule, said the additional time would make it harder to close the issue. "This is now a total shell game," he said.

And Tuesday, Sen. Michael Enzi, R-Wyo., another opponent of the rule, said he did not think it should be the crux of the Labor-HHS appropriations bill.