mr. speaker , i rise in opposition to h.r. 740 because workers deserve to know that their interests will be heard without biased judgment by the occupational safety and health review commission . 
grieving families across america depend on osha to stand up for them and for their deceased and injured loved ones . 
but this legislation will threaten one of the only hopes that families have for justice when a loved one is harmed at work . 
by increasing the membership of the commission from three to five , the administration could actually play politics with the commission , filling it with antiworker safety appointees , making it more difficult to reach a quorum than now . 
the very idea that it is simpler to get a three-member quorum than a two-member quorum makes no sense . 
if you can not fill a quorum when you only have three , how are you going to fill it when you have five ? 
since president bush took office , it has been really clear that he intends to use osha to protect employers rather than employees when addressing worker safety . 
why then would we believe that he would appoint members to the commission that would steer the commission toward helping the employee rather than the employer ? 
employees need to know that business interests are not the primary basis of the osha review commission . 
the size of the osha review commission has no meaning in the face of employee health and safety , in the face of death and injury . 
what does it matter to the worker the size of the business or how many members sit on a commission ? 
death is death . 
injury is injury . 
that is what we should be talking about , protecting our workers . 
mr. speaker , this legislation is not what workers need or want . 
their grievances must be taken more seriously than these little fixes here and there in the osha review . 
if you can not sit three members , why could you sit five ? 
think about it . 
that is why i urge my colleagues to oppose h.r. 740 . 
