President requests 11% increase for OSHA
President requests 11% increase for OSHA
President Clinton has requested a $426 million budget for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration in fiscal year 2001, a $44.4 million increase — or 11.6% more than the $381.6 million appropriated by Congress for the current fiscal year.
The increase, according to Charles Jeffress, OSHA administrator, will enable OSHA to achieve better balance between its outreach activities, such as compliance assistance and training, and its enforcement activities, which in recent years have been targeted at high-hazard work sites.
Workplace fatalities have been slashed 50%, and injuries and illnesses have been cut 40% since OSHA was created in 1971, while the number of people employed has increased 116%. Under the President’s proposal, OSHA will receive $67.1 million — a 23.9% increase — for expanded outreach activities, most of which is compliance assistance to businesses. Nearly $3.4 million of the $12.9 million increase will be used to hire 35 additional compliance assistance specialists, achieving the agency’s goal of staffing each federal OSHA area office with one specialist whose sole job is to assist businesses that request help. Funds also will be used to develop training and outreach materials to help both employers and employees understand and comply with OSHA standards.
Jeffress says that, with the increase, OSHA also will be able to provide an additional 3,200 free consultation visits to small businesses, raising the annual total to 30,700. Under this program, small business owners in 46 states can get confidential help from safety and health experts without fear of citations or penalties. A business owner can request either a comprehensive inspection and advice about all safety and health problems uncovered, or limit a consultant’s efforts to a single area.
More than $11 million — including a $3 million increase — is earmarked for the agency’s Susan Harwood Training Grant Program, which enables nonprofit organizations to conduct safety and health training in the workplace. New grants will focus on entry-level, contingent, and non-English speaking workers, as well as the needs of small businesses.
In addition, about $750,000 will be used to hire 10 employees to work onsite with businesses to provide ergonomics assistance, including helping businesses establish voluntary ergonomics programs.
Under the President’s proposal, OSHA will receive $153.1 million — an 8.6% increase — for enforcement activities. Nearly half of the $12.1 million increase is earmarked to hire 63 compliance officers who will help conduct wall-to-wall inspections at industries and work sites with above-average illness and injury rates. The typical site-specific inspection takes about 55 hours, compared to just 22 hours for an average OSHA inspection. The agency now employs about 1,079 inspectors.
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