mr. speaker , i yield myself the balance of our time . 
mr. speaker , having been an employer , i realized early on that the greatest asset in my business were the people who work for me . 
and having worked every job known to man growing up , i know that the people i worked for realized that the greatest asset they had in their business were their workers . 
when it comes to the protection of workers , i believe that all employers are interested in trying to protect their employees . 
congress , in 1970 , passed the osha act , putting in statute a set of laws , rules and regulations about the protection of american workers . 
and over the last , really the last 7 or 8 years , we have made great progress in reducing workplace accidents , illnesses and deaths , because osha , at the prodding of many of us , began to work more cooperatively with employers around the country . 
i have been to many work sites in my own district where voluntary protection programs have been instituted and have been signed off by osha that allow employers and their employees to work cooperatively in order to have a safer workplace . 
and the results , the results are pretty clear . 
if you look at , over the last 5 years , the rate of illness , workplace injuries , and deaths has continued to decline precipitously . 
we are making real progress . 
so i would continue to urge osha to work with employers and their employees to help create the safer workplace that all of us want . 
now , the bill before us simply says that there ought to be this independent review of the decisions that osha makes , that osha as the policeman , as the prosecutor , as the judge and the jury , is not fair to american workers or their employers . 
and we believe that when congress created osha in 1970 , they believed , and it is clear in the legislative language and in their intent , that they believed that there would be an independent review commission making these decisions . 
all we do in this bill is to make clear that it is congress 's intent and that osha will , in fact , abide by the law as it was written . 
so i would urge my colleagues to support the underlying bill today . 
