mr. speaker , i yield myself such time as i may consume . 
mr. speaker , the critical question is what more important things should we be doing ? 
this commission bill which creates confusion , to our knowledge , is still not sanctioned by the administration or the secretary of labor . 
why are we putting such great amounts of time and energy into proposing new powers for this commission when there are other more important things that we ought to be addressing ? 
and the statement by the gentlewoman from ohio ( ms. kaptur ) xz4002110 was all related to what other important things should we be doing . 
why can we not have hearings when there is a major accident with four men being killed under the circumstances they were killed in ohio ? 
why can we not call in osha and demand that there be an expedited investigation ? 
why are citations allowed to be unclassified ? 
this committee , the committee on education and the workforce , has oversight over the work of the department of labor and osha . 
why can we not get better answers ? 
why can we not consider my bill , h.r. 2004 , the protecting america 's workers act , which will call for penalties for corporations who are guilty of the kind of neglect that led to the deaths of the four workers in ohio ? 
even by conservative estimates , 15 workers in this country will be killed on the job today , july 12 . 
they will be killed due to serious safety lapses on the part of their employers . 
why are we wasting our time playing around with the adjustment of a commission when these workers deaths are still going on in america ? 
i spoke earlier about the fiery explosion some 3 months ago at the bp plant in texas city that killed 15 workers and injured more than 100 others . 
this happened three months ago . 
it is not ancient history . 
why has this committee with jurisdiction not examined that explosion more closely here in washington ? 
i had also previously mentioned the bridge collapse in toledo , which the gentlewoman from ohio ( ms. kaptur ) xz4002110 discussed in greater detail . 
many other cases of worker deaths , equally as tragic and preventable , only make local headlines . 
they only know about them locally . 
and they go on in different parts of the country because we are not aware of the seriousness of the situation . 
the fact is that much of what happens in one area can be prevented from happening in another area if we would just address those serious issues . 
every year in new york city , for example , a number of unprotected construction workers are killed by free-falls from buildings and collapses of faulty scaffolds and concrete walls . 
almost 8 months ago in walnut creek , california , a gas pipeline explosion killed five workers , and badly injured four others . 
the list goes on and on . 
we welcome this opportunity to get on the record from both the members of congress and the american people the fact that these things are continuing -- this steady rate of somewhere between 5 , 700 and 6 , 000 workers dying each year -- and it has been going on too long . 
why not address the fact that this is something that can be stopped ? 
we can change the death rate by having a more effective osha instead of playing around the edges , as these four bills are doing . 
in the words of a new york state supreme court justice , these worker deaths in new york were not simply `` random accidents '' but rather , and i am quoting the judge here , `` tragic certainties. '' `` tragic certainties. '' the workers died as the direct result of some employer 's willful safety violations or serious negligence . 
what is even more reprehensible is that too often , and in the specific worker death cases i just referred to , the employers responsible for these fatalities are repeat safety offenders . 
in a forum i held last year entitled , `` jobs to die for : inadequate enforcement of u.s. safety standards , '' i heard from the grieving parents of 22-year-old patrick walters . 
patrick was buried alive on june 14 , 2002 , working on a sewer pipe in a 10-foot trench . 
patrick had spoken before about his fear of being suffocating because he was repeatedly sent down into the trenches without any protective equipment and without a metal trench box . 
we have a picture of patrick here . 
he is the young man at the top tier of the poster to my right . 
i mentioned patrick 's employer before , moeves plumbing , with respect to h.r. 739 . 
i did this because moeves plumbing is a repeat safety offender . 
the firm has been the subject of 13 osha inspections since 1989 . 
patrick died only weeks after osha had cited moeves plumbing for willful trenching violations . 
when osha settled the case of patrick walters ' death with moeves plumbing , however , they changed the willful violation to an `` unclassified '' one . 
have we heard that before today ? 
unclassified , just as they did in the case of ohio . 
it was not a willful violation , but an unclassified violation . 
a weak osha , a corrupt osha changed it to `` unclassified. '' without a willful violation , the solicitor of labor would not recommend criminal prosecution of moeves plumbing . 
as patrick 's parents told me last year : `` we need to get some stiffer penalties and some muscle behind it , or moeves ' company is going to kill another child again . 
they will . 
it 's only a matter of time. '' patrick 's parents , who still live in the cincinnati area , continue to see moeves employees working inside trenches without any cave-in protections . 
as patrick 's father told a reporter in march of 2005 , march of this year , about the owner of moeves plumbing : `` she 's killed two people now , and she 'll probably kill two people again . 
it 's obvious she 's not listening to what osha is telling her. '' under the current osha act , the maximum penalty any employer can receive for causing the death of a worker , considered a misdemeanor , is 6 months in prison and a $ 10 , 000 fine . 
six months in prison and a $ 10 , 000 fine . 
unlike surviving relatives of other crime victims , family members of workers killed on the job are left without any victim services or assistance under current law . 
they even lack a voice in any osha investigations of their loved ones ' deaths . 
they also lack any voice in osha 's subsequent negotiations with culpable employees over the downgrading of initial citations and fines tied to the worker fatalities . 
by stiffening criminal penalties for those found guilty of blatant safety violations that result in worker deaths , the protecting america 's workers act will make other employers think twice about ignoring basic health and safety rules that risk workers ' lives . 
h.r. 2004 incorporates in its entirety the provisions of a bill i introduced last year , and that was called the workplace wrongful death accountability act . 
both bills would make it a felony offense to kill a worker and provide for a term of no more than 10 years in prison . 
a felony offense to kill a worker , and there will be a term of no more than 10 years in prison . 
for a second offense , the maximum term for a culpable employer would be 20 years in prison . 
fines would be set in accordance with title 18 of the u.s. code , which is standard practice for all other criminal matters . 
in other legislative matters , everyone agrees that holding people accountable by such means as stiffened penalties serves a critically important deterrent purpose . 
we are often on this floor talking about the need to not be soft on crime , to come with the hardest possible punishment as a deterrent . 
yet i know that there are many on the other side of the aisle who are absolutely allergic to what i am proposing here , the prospect of holding accountable any employer whose willful or grossly negligent safety offenses kill workers . 
they do n't want to hold accountable any employer whose willful or grossly negligent safety offenses kill workers . 
the opposition to holding such bad actors accountable does not even waver in instances where a number of workers are killed by the same safety violations over a 5- or 10-year period . 
the opposition also does not waver no matter how many workers are killed by an employer 's egregious safety offenses . 
i am heartened , however , by the fact that yesterday 's `` inside osha '' reports that senator enzi from wyoming , who chairs the health , education , labor and pensions committee , supports stiffening criminal penalties for health and safety violations that kill workers . 
as i understand it , senator enzi and i might differ on the maximum penalty for corporate manslaughter , but we agree on the need to make this a felony offense . 
i believe senator enzi would prefer to see a maximum prison sentence for a first offense set at 18 months , whereas my bill would set the maximum at 10 years , in accordance with standard criminal law . 
senators kennedy , corzine , and others introduced the protecting america 's workers act on the senate side ; and they agree with setting the maximum penalty for corporate manslaughter at the 10-year mark . 
mr. speaker , the protecting america 's workers act would also extend osha coverage to millions of workers who currently lack the protection of workplace safety and health laws . 
among others , these include public employees in a number of states and localities , certain transportation workers such as flight attendants , and a number of federal workers , as well as those in public/private entities such as the nuclear regulatory commission . 
moreover , this act provides stronger protections for any worker who reports safety and health violations of an errant employer . 
this bill requires osha to investigate any workplace incident that results in the death of a worker or the hospitalization of two or more workers . 
at the same time , it gives surviving family members of workers who are killed greater participation rights in osha 's workplace investigation and penalty negotiation process with the respective employers responsible for these fatalities . 
moreover , it prohibits osha from downgrading willful citations in worker fatalities , downgrading them to this `` unclassified '' category . 
they should not be categorized as `` unclassified '' ever again . 
last , but not least , this bill that i propose strengthens workplace prevention efforts by requiring employers to cover the costs of personal protective equipment for their employees . 
mr. speaker , i want to commend the new york committee on the safety and health , nycosh , joined by cosh committees in other states , for launching a national campaign against corporate killing . 
this grassroots campaign will alert workers and the wider public about the importance of ensuring employers do not place profits above basic safety measures at the expense of workers ' very health and lives . 
this is a serious business that this committee ought to be about . 
this is a serious business that ought to be on the floor today . 
this grassroots campaign says what congress should also be saying , that it is important to ensure that employers , that bosses do not place profits above basic safety measures at the expense of workers ' health and lives . 
mr. speaker , the time for the protecting america 's workers act is now . 
although we have been making progress and making the american workplace safer in prior administrations , that progress has stalled , and we need to act immediately in a serious manner and stop the kinds of adjustments that are taking place in the bills that are on the floor today . 
mr. speaker , i yield back the balance of my time . 
