mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman for yielding me time and for his tremendous leadership on this issue . 
he has been working it for a long time . 
mr. speaker , i rise today in support of the occupational safety and health small employer access to justice act . 
and i read it that way in the quotes for a purpose . 
the gentleman from georgia ( mr. norwood ) xz4002960 mentioned earlier that we have heard language today that ranged on a wide variety of subjects , and i am not sure at all that they were talking about the issue before us today . 
this legislation that is before us now is one of four bills under consideration today which reflects the commitment of the gentleman from georgia ( mr. norwood ) xz4002960 and me and my colleagues to improve the effectiveness of osha regulations and changes the environment that has hindered u.s. employers from creating and keeping more jobs . 
i have listened to language today earlier this afternoon on these four bills that talked about us losing millions of jobs to china and elsewhere . 
the purpose of the legislation that we are talking about today is to , in fact , help create and keep jobs here in america . 
i will repeat what my friend from georgia said earlier today , that the osha small employer access to justice act levels the playing field for small business owners and encourages osha to better assess the merits of a case before it brings unnecessary enforcement actions to court against small business . 
loopholes in the current law make it possible for small businesses to be denied attorneys fees , and as my friends said , therefore , not even take the case to court because they simply can not afford to defend themselves against a case brought against them by osha . 
this exacerbates the financial harm called by osha 's sometimes dubious enforcement actions and discourages small business owners from seeking the restitution which rightly belongs to them . 
by closing this loophole , we ensure it is in everyone 's best interest . 
