Congress Looks to Kill Worker Safety Bill

The United States Senate has voted to overturn an executive order created by President Barack Obama that would require companies seeking federal contracts to disclose serious workplace safety violations.

This comes just one month after the House voted to break up the order, which specifically requires companies seeking federal contracts of at least half-a-million-dollars to disclose workplace safety, civil rights and wage violations that occurred within the last three years. The House voted 49 to 48 to dismantle the bill.

Democratic lawmakers were largely opposed to the move, some of whom cited specific incidents like a Navy shipbuilder that recently came under fire during an investigation. VT Halter Marine, Inc., the shipbuilder cited, has allegedly received hundreds of millions of dollars from the United States Navy, even though it has a long record of serious and fatal incidents at the company's various shipyards throughout the state of Mississippi.

In 2009, two employees working for VT Halter Marine Inc. died when a tugboat exploded. After an investigation, it was determined that VT Halter Marine Inc failed to provide those employees with the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) to prevent such injuries. Another employee lost his life in 2012 when a pressurized lid blew off. During this incident, a second nearby employee was also serious injured, though he later recovered.

Of course, VT Halter Marine Inc. is just one example that lawmakers cited when stressing the importance of the workplace safety bill. Without this bill in place, companies seeking high-dollar federal contracts will no longer be required ti disclose serious safety incidents such as this. Some lawmakers fear that this will lead to increased rates of serious and potentially fatal injuries among contract workers.

"This is the opening salvo of the Republican’s war on workers,” said Deborah Berkowitz, a senior policy adviser at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration when many of the regulations were crafted. “It sends a signal that Congress and the administration is listening to big business and their lobbyists and they are not standing up for the interests of the American workers.”

So, what comes next? Well, President Donald Trump must sign off on the resolution to make it official. Assuming he does so, federal contractors seeking large deals with the government in excess of $500,000 will no longer be requires to disclose serious safety violations.