mr. speaker , i would like to start by saying that neither this bill nor the other three weaken osha . 
we designed these bills to help osha . 
part of the problem is that this 34-year-old bill has been changed by activist judges , it has not been reviewed or looked at in 34 years in any sense , and these simply bring fairness back into the equation . 
as you can imagine , 34 years ago , we had an osha bill that was drawn up by a democratic house and a democratic senate that was very fair , just a little tilted in one direction , and we are trying to undo that tilt just a little bit so finally , finally , maybe we can get osha to work with the small business community to benefit the workers . 
the occupational safety and health independent review of osha citations act restores congressional intent where the operation of the occupational safety and health review commission is concerned . 
it just puts it back like it was 34 years ago . 
it got knocked out of whack with activist judges . 
when the occupational safety and health act was passed , the only reason it passed was a last-minute compromise to create an independent review commission . 
if you do not believe me , you do not have to . 
go read the testimony . 
it is exactly what happened in the seventies . 
it is clear in the legislative language of the osh act that congress empowered the commission to interpret ambiguities under the act . 
this , however , has been undermined by legal interpretations that did not consider congressional action at the time . 
i would think all of us would want them to consider what we in congress did . 
mr. speaker , the osh act empowers osha to inspect and propose citations for violations of safety and health standards . 
the commission 's responsibility is to review contested citations and render judgment . 
osha 's responsibility is to make up the rules and enforce the rules . 
but they should not sit in judgment of their own rules . 
that can never be fair to anybody . 
the congress in 1970 understood that , and we are going to fix that in osha sometime very soon . 
congress did not intend for osha to create the regulations , enforce them , and then turn around and interpret them . 
i would compare osha 's role to a prosecutor , and the commission 's role to a court . 
congress never intended that osha should also be the judge and jury . 
this is the commission 's role . 
unfortunately , that position has been undermined by other court cases , cases that did not directly deal with safety and health law , for pity 's sake , which suggested that deference should be given to osha instead . 
in my view , this must be corrected , and as long as i am in this town and in this body , i am going to try to correct it . 
h.r. 741 simply states that deference shall be given to the reasonable findings of the commission in accordance with the governing court precedents as congress originally intended . 
in the 108th congress , most of us understood this was important : 224 voted for it ; 204 against . 
i know that the union bosses are against anything we do , anything that might possibly help the majority of citizens in this country who are in small business . 
lord , they are always against it . 
but those of you who care about union members , think about them on these votes . 
do n't worry about the union bosses . 
they are going to contribute to you , anyway . 
think about the workers . 
they are the folks who would appreciate this kind of legislation . 
