Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.), the new chairman of the Senate Labor Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training, plans to make OSHA reform a priority.
Enzi met with OSHA Administrator Charles Jeffress on Thursday to discuss further reform in 1999.
"OSHA reform is a priority," said Coy Knobel, Enzi's spokesman. "The senator's style is very much one-on-one dialogue and discussions and he tries to iron out as many differences as possible before bringing it to committee." Knobel said Enzi may outline his goals by next week.
Enzi has been a leader in OSHA reform in the past year. He introduced a comprehensive bill (S. 765) which did not make it through Congress. He later pushed through three non-controversial elements of the bill through separate legislation and they passed. The bills: codify OSHA's consultative program; end OSHA enforcement quotas; and add the postal service to the agency's domain.
More contentious issues, such as third party audits and lessening OSHA's enforcement bite, have yet to be decided.