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Democrats Ask Labor to Forgo 'Secret Rule'
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jul 24, 2008 09:04am |
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| Category | News |
| Media | Newspaper - Washington Post |
| News Date | Thursday, July 24, 2008 03:00:00 PM UTC0:0 |
| Description | By Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 24, 2008; Page A03
Congressional leaders demanded yesterday that the Labor Department withdraw an eleventh-hour rule proposal that would make it more difficult to set industry limits on the amount of dangerous chemicals that U.S. workers are exposed to on the job.
In a letter to Labor Secretary Elaine L. Chao, the Democratic chairmen of the Senate and House labor committees accused her department of crafting a secret rule in the final months of the Bush administration, with the goal of weakening worker safety and helping businesses avoid regulations.
Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (Mass.) and Rep. George Miller (Calif.) said Chao's department violated the rule requiring federal agencies to alert the public twice a year to any directives it was considering. They asked her to turn over internal documents of any meetings or communications Labor officials had with business or outside groups relating to the proposal.
Their demand came the day The Washington Post reported that the agency began actively researching the proposal as early as last September, when it commissioned a $347,000 outside study of the idea. It did not disclose its interest until it formally submitted a draft rule to the White House Office of Management and Budget on July 7. |
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