madam speaker , i rise to oppose this bill which would give a pass to employers who do not meet workplace safety conditions . 
we could have taken this opportunity to help hardworking americans feel a little safer in the workplace , or we could have made today 's priority giving some relief to middle-class families who are struggling to keep up with record-breaking gas prices , tuition increases , and health care costs . 
instead , this administration has once again chosen in favor of the corporate sector and the special interests . 
their reward in this bill comes at the expense of hardworking employees who depend on osha to keep an eye on their working conditions . 
but when former executives win appointments to regulate the same industries in which they used to work , sound science and smart public policy usually tack a back seat to political favoritism and ideology . 
this bill creates a new loophole around the 15-day deadline for contesting osha citations . 
it is yet one more corporate handout that could have been better spent on job training , reversing the tide of outsourcing , or raising the minimum wage . 
meanwhile , hard-working americans are increasingly faced with workplace conditions in which critically important safeguards are watered down , emerging problems are ignored , and enforcement is scaled back . 
if osha already has the authority to review missed deadlines on a case-by-case basis , why would we need a bill that changes this process in a one-sided way that could further disadvantage workers , encourage litigation , and undermine health and safety protections ? 
madam speaker , i believe the senate got it right last year when it declined to consider this or any of the other three proposed rollbacks of osha 's responsibility to hard-working americans . 
i encourage my colleagues to vote against all four of these bills . 
