Barab: Federal OSHA oversight of State Plan states needs improvement

Nov 17, 2009

OSHA's oversight of states that operate their own safety and health programs has dwindled over the years, acting OSHA administrator Jordan Barab recently said in testimony before the House Education and Labor Committee.

In an Oct. 29 hearing on federal OSHA's recent critical review of Nevada's OSHA program, Barab said the report "convinced me that significant changes must be made in how federal OSHA conducts oversight over the State Plan programs."

The federal method of monitoring State Plan programs changed from "intensive" oversight measuring the states against federal performance in the 1970s to a current system that measures state performance against the state's own goals, according to Barab.

Additionally, although the federal government is supposed to provide 50 percent of a State Plan's funding, federal OSHA has provided no "significant increase" to State Plans in the past seven years despite a 20 percent increase in the agency's budget, he said.

Forty percent of America's workforce is covered by State Plans, which are required by law to be "at least as effective" as federal OSHA. Due to a lack of funding increases by the federal government, some states have seen erosion in the resources committed to their OSHA plans, including some states that have had to leave positions vacant, according to Barab.

In response, OSHA plans to conduct a study on all 25 State Plan programs. A 15 percent increase in State Plan funding also was included in the fiscal year 2010 budget request.

Barab said states that fail to make improvements to identified problems with their OSHA program could see approval of their programs withdrawn and jurisdiction returned to federal OSHA.

In a rarely seen occurrence, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) appeared before the House committee to testify. He pledged to ensure federal OSHA "gets the funding it needs to ensure American workers' safety."