mr. speaker , i thank the gentleman from new york ( mr. owens ) xz4003060 for his defense of workers rights . 
i rise in strong opposition to h.r. 742 and to any bill that seeks to weaken osha at a time when we should be strengthening it . 
i further want to say that i think the passage of this bill sets a dangerous precedent because what we would be doing effectively is undermining osha , not only discouraging it from performing its statutory mission of making sure that the workplace is safe , but also setting the stage for depriving osha of any revenues that it would need to be able to enforce the law . 
it also occurs to me that there is a question of the constitutional rights of workers here , that since osha is given rather exclusive jurisdiction to protect the rights of workers and to enforce workplace safety standards , that working people would in effect be deprived of due process of law and equal protection of the law . 
so it seems to me there are constitutional issues here at stake as well . 
the core mission of osha is to protect workers by enforcing safety standards . 
this bill will undermine that mission . 
it will alter osha 's ability to enforce , and it will leave workers in danger . 
the latest numbers from the bureau of labor statistics show a rise in deaths of american workers on the job . 
in 2002 , 5 , 524 workers were killed due to injuries on the job . 
by 2003 , that number had risen to 5 , 575 . 
in 2003 , 4.4 million , 4.4 million non-fatal workplace injuries were also reported . 
let us remember what osha is : osha is the federal cop on the workplace safety beat . 
h.r. 742 will discourage osha from enforcing the laws against dangerous workplaces . 
instead , osha will spend its time weighing the odds of winning against the costs to its budget if it loses . 
h.r. 742 would require osha to pay attorneys fees in any case which it does not prevail . 
this would discourage settlements which save both time and money and in effect leave businesses with little or no reason to not contest charges . 
imagine if congress were to consider a bill to require police departments to pay attorneys fees of a criminal defendant charged with reckless endangerment merely because they were acquitted or found guilty of a lesser charge . 
would this house support that ? 
the question answers itself . 
why support h.r. 742 which , in effect , does this same thing ? 
the nation 's workplaces will be more dangerous and more lawless if the changes made by this bill are passed . 
this bill was designed to weaken enforcement of workplace safety laws and to in effect steal from exploited americans the protection from injury and the justice they deserve . 
this legislation will severely handicap osha , the federal workplace safety force , by discouraging it from citing employers unless the agency is completely certain it will win . 
this legislation will endanger americans , the vast majority of whom work for others to make a living . 
they work in factories , in shops , in hospitals . 
they work in nursing homes and in schools . 
they are not the bosses who decide if and how businesses will obey the law . 
instead , they face the consequences of those decisions , and they live and die by those decisions . 
they need strong workplace safety laws and vigorous enforcement . 
they need to have h.r. 742 to feed it . 
current law already permits small businesses to recover litigation costs when the government position was not substantially justified . 
in the year 2000 , 97.7 percent of all private establishments had less than seven employees and such establishments have a higher rate of occupational fatalities than establishments of more than 100 workers . 
the fundamental question that faces this house here is , do workers have rights to fair compensation when they are hurt on the job ? 
because this is not just about workers ; it is about the american family . 
does a breadwinner have the right to be protected in the workplace ? 
do we have an obligation as a congress to ensure a safe workplace ? 
that is really the question that we are deciding here today . 
we are acting as though the interest of business and the interest of workers is somehow divided . 
the interest should be the same . 
workplace safety should be the highest criteria . 
we should not give up on workplace safety because of some odd notion that osha should pay if it brings a proceeding that is not upheld in a higher jurisdiction . 
we as members of this house will pay a price if we fail to uphold workers ' rights , if we fail to uphold the rights of a safe workplace , if we fail to uphold the right to fair compensation if someone is injured on the job , if we fail in our moral obligation to assure that corporations have a responsibility to their workers . 
this should not be a matter of democrat or republican . 
it should not be a matter of labor management . 
this should be an american commitment to safe workplaces . 
and because of that i urge my colleagues to vote to defeat h.r. 742 and to work in a bipartisan way to assure that the american workplace is going to be safe for all those who toil for a living . 
