mr. speaker , i rise today to speak in opposition to h.r. 742 , a bill to amend the occupational safety and health act of 1970 by making it easier for small businesses to recover attorneys ' fees from osha if the agency brought unjustified enforcement action . 
small businesses under the bill are defined as those with no more than 100 employees and a maximum $ 7 million in net worth . 
more than any of the other bills , h.r. 742 poses the greatest threat to worker safety and health . 
osha , as is almost every other federal agency , is already required by law to pay attorneys ' fees and costs in any proceeding in which the agency 's charge is not substantially justified . 
h.r. 742 singles out osha , alone among all federal agencies , to require it to pay attorneys ' fees and costs in any proceeding in which it does not win , regardless of why it lost and notwithstanding the fact that the position of the agency was substantially justified . 
in effect , unless the agency can guarantee that it will win every case it brings , h.r. 742 punishes the osha for trying to enforce the law . 
the osh act does not afford workers a private right of action . 
if osha fails to enforce the law workers have no other means of doing so . 
in summary , this bill , as would all the other osha bills considered today , would impede the enforcement of worksite safety and health provisions at the very time when more and more americans have identified safety as one of their foremost concerns . 
according to a poll conducted in april by nbc and the wall street journal , 84 percent of americans want congress to pass legislation that ensures greater workplace safety and health . 
supporting this bill would take us in exactly the opposite direction . 
