House Kills Worker Ergonomics Rules

Republican-sponsored legislation to wipe out the first federal job safety rules targeting repetitive-motion injuries won final congressional approval Wednesday from the House after a short and fiercely partisan debate.

Ramming the measure through their chamber one day after it passed the Senate with equal speed, House Republican leaders whipped their ranks into line on an issue crucial to the party’s allies in the business community.

The House vote to kill the job-safety rules, issued in the final weeks of the Clinton administration, was 223 to 206. Only 13 of 220 Republicans strayed from their party leadership to support the rules.

The House action followed a 56-44 Senate vote for repeal Tuesday that demonstrated even stronger GOP discipline. Not one of the 50 Republican senators backed the rules.

The repeal legislation now heads to the White House. President Bush, strongly supported by many business groups and opposed by organized labor during his campaign, this week signaled he will sign it.

The congressional action, completed less than a week after the legislation was introduced in the Senate, meant at least a pause--perhaps a long one--in a decade-long federal rule-making effort meant to lead employers nationwide to adopt the principles of ergonomics.

Those principles, which call for working conditions tailored to the physical limits of workers, are applied in programs to reduce injuries such as carpal tunnel syndrome, tendinitis and other disorders caused by repetitive, stressful or awkward motions. Federal data show that such ailments, known as musculoskeletal disorders, force at least 600,000 workers off the job each year.

The rules in question require most employers to take steps to inform employees about ergonomics and possible hazards in the workplace. Those who receive verified complaints of a work-related musculoskeletal disorder are required, under the rules, to take steps to remedy the problem. The Clinton administration estimated the cost of implementation in the first year would be $4.5 billion; businesses complained it could be 20 times that amount.

House Republicans, in Wednesday’s abbreviated debate, echoed arguments that their Senate counterparts and the Bush administration made the day before: that the ergonomics rules would overwhelm large and small businesses with costly and meddlesome red tape.

“What is it with the Democrat Party that they think the wizards of Oz are in Washington, D.C., and that they should dictate to all the businesses of the country who should do what and how they should do it?” asked Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.).

But Rep. David R. Obey (D-Wis.) called the House action “a disgrace--a blanket wipeout of virtually every protection that workers have in this country for repetitive-motion injuries.”

The only California Republican to vote for the rules was Rep. Stephen Horn of Long Beach. Of the 16 Democrats who voted for the repeal, the lone Californian was Rep. Calvin M. Dooley of Visalia.

While Congress frequently spars with the executive branch over regulatory powers, this week’s action marked the first time that Congress had formally acted to nullify a federal regulation under a 1996 law that gives it such authority, subject to presidential approval.

For lobbyists, this week’s votes wrote the final chapter on regulations that had caused repeated clashes in years past between President Clinton and the Republican-led Congress. First came battles over drafts, then a formal proposal, then the final rules--which took effect Jan. 16. Then, less than two months after Bush took office on Jan. 20, came the short, bitter fight over repeal.

Businesses, urgently seeking to quash the eleventh-hour Clinton administration regulations, and unions, just as fervently striving to save them, worked the same targets in the final hours before Wednesday’s vote. They were a few dozen centrist Democrats and Republicans with a history of crossing party lines on business-labor issues.

Organizations such as the National Federation of Independent Businesses, the National Assn. of Manufacturers and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce worked the issue heavily--pressuring lawmakers with faxes, phone calls and personal visits.

Bill Samuel, legislative director for the AFL-CIO, expressed hope before the vote that labor unions could pull off a comeback. But from the beginning, he acknowledged, odds favored a pro-business result. “We’re hearing from Republicans that they’re getting very heavy pressure from their leadership” to back the repeal, Samuel said.

The GOP leadership limited the final debate to one hour, with 30 minutes for each side. Democrats, seeking more time to vent their anger, asked to double that allotment and noted that the House was in recess for several hours during Wednesday afternoon. But Republicans refused to budge.

“It’s a significant bill that means a lot,” Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), the minority whip, lectured House Majority Leader Dick Armey (R-Texas). “Why we can’t get an extra hour for debate is beyond me.”

In an interview, Rep. Anne M. Northup (R-Ky.), a leading critic of the regulations, said Republicans were in a hurry because they wanted to take up the centerpiece of the Bush agenda--tax cuts--today. The ergonomics rules, she said, were a relic of the Clinton era.

“This is old business,” Northup said, referring to the repeal, “and new business is starting. We needed to wrap up old business as quickly as possible.”

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CALIFORNIA REGULATIONS

Ergonomics rules are weak and seldom enforced, safety advocates say. C1