Ryan Mackenzie Claims OSHA Has Exceeded ‘Statutory Authority,’ Urges Reform To Fulfill Original Mission

Forbes Breaking News

At a House Education and the Workforce Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Ryan Mackenzie (R-PA) spoke about the need to reform OSHA.

Transcript

00:00is present. Without objection, the chair is authorized to call a recess at any time.

00:05Today's hearing will review the Occupational Safety and Health Administration's activity

00:09under the previous administration and will also explore common sense solutions

00:14that can return OSHA to fulfilling its purpose of advancing workplace safety.

00:20OSHA's mission is to ensure the hardworking men and women of this nation are given safe

00:25and healthy working conditions. The agency fulfills this mission by setting and enforcing safety

00:31standards and by providing education, outreach, and compliance assistance to both employers

00:38and employees. When necessary, OSHA's enforcement efforts include monetary and even criminal penalties,

00:45all with the goal of protecting workers. That mission is critically important. However,

00:51in recent years, we've seen a regulatory approach that in many cases may have gone beyond OSHA's

00:57statutory authority under the Occupational Safety and Health Act. While these actions may have been

01:02well-intentioned, they often created confusion or imposed overly broad mandates that didn't meet

01:08the realities of the industry's affected, especially for small businesses. For example,

01:14OSHA's attempt to implement a nationwide COVID vaccine mandate later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court

01:20raised serious concerns about federal overreach. In 2024, the agency issued a worker walk-around rule,

01:28which opened the door to third-party individuals, even those without workplace safety backgrounds,

01:34entering job sites to do safety inspections. And the proposed heat standard, while addressing a real

01:40concern, takes a one-size-fits-all approach that fails to account for a wide range of conditions

01:45and different industries and regions. We've also seen an expansion of enforcement tools, such as the

01:52Severe Violatal Enforcement Program and the Instance-by-Instance Citation Policy that may reflect

01:58a view of employers as adversaries rather than partners in workplace safety. That's a misguided perspective.

02:05Obviously, small businesses succeed when their employees succeed, and most of their employers

02:13take workplace safety very seriously. OSHA's mission is too important to be undermined by overreach.

02:20As the nature of work continues to change, broad-based regulatory efforts can unintentionally

02:25create more problems than they solve. That's why today's conversation is so critically important.

02:31For instance, this tree care industry has petitioned for the creation of a federal tree care standard

02:37for nearly two decades. This is one of the most dangerous industries in the nation, but workers

02:43currently rely on a patchwork of standards that do not adequately address the unique challenges of

02:48the work being performed. Similarly, because of technological advances with equipment and machinery,

02:55OSHA should update its 35-year-old standard on the control of hazardous energy, otherwise known as

03:03the lockout-tagout standard. While we saw progress on both fronts under the first Trump administration,

03:09now is the time to push for these solutions to be resolved. Republicans, under this American economy

03:17and this administration, we know that America flourishes when workers flourish. I look forward to the

03:24hearing for today's witnesses so that they can bring about their knowledge and share with us

03:30what can be improved from the past four years, the lessons that we've learned, and how we can keep

03:35OSHA focused on its core mission of keeping America's workers safe.

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