Confirmation Hearing Urged For OSHA Nominee

October 12, 2009

The Hill reports, "A coalition of business groups is worried that Senate Democratic leaders will not hold a confirmation hearing on President Barack Obama's nominee for a key post at the Labor Department." Concerned that "the nomination of David Michaels to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will go straight to the floor, industry groups are lobbying for a committee hearing." In letters sent "to leaders of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, the NAM and the Coalition for Workplace Safety requested a hearing on the George Washington University professor Obama picked for the job in July." Jeri Kubicki, the NAM's vice president of human resources policy, wrote in the letter, "Dr. Michaels has advocated an approach to developing workplace regulations that would allow unproven and insufficient scientific evidence to be used as the basis for regulatory actions." Keith Smith, the NAM's director of employment and labor policy, said the business groups "want to see a hearing on Michaels's nomination before the HELP Committee so that the nominee would be asked questions about how the administration plans to address ergonomics."