The House Education and Workforce Committee approved legislation along party lines Tuesday to prevent the Department of Labor from finalizing any worker protections for extreme heat.
Introduced by Rep. Mark Messmer (R-Ind.), the Heat Workforce Standards Act, H.R. 6213, is a reaction to a regulation proposed by the Biden administration two years ago that would require employers to provide workers with water and a cool place to rest when heat and humidity reach 80 degrees. It passed 18-15.
The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has made no moves to advance that proposal during the Trump administration, but Messmer said he wanted to obstruct the “terrible rule,” which he accused of trying to address “a problem that doesn’t need solving.”
“The Biden and Harris suggested rule must be stopped before it causes significant harms to American businesses without any evidence that it will create one iota of improvement in existing workplace safety efforts,” he said Tuesday.
Lawmakers debated the bill as a heat wave blanketed the Midwest and just weeks after a heat dome over much of the country may have killed 29 people in New Jersey alone.
Rep. John Mannion (D-N.Y.) noted the markup’s timing and described the Biden-era rulemaking as “a commonplace measure to keep workers safe.”
“When it comes to any OSHA standard I too want to make sure that it’s workable for businesses to understand and to follow, but throwing out the entire standard altogether is wrong and puts people at continued risk,” said Mannion.
Committee Republicans rebuffed an effort from Rep. Alma Adams (D-N.C.) to substitute the legislation with text of another bill, the Asunción Valdivia Heat Illness, Injury, and Fatality Prevention Act, H.R. 4443, which would direct OSHA to adopt a heat standard. Democrats have unsuccessfully introduced that bill for the past six years.
“Go outside and stack boxes on Independence Avenue for a few hours without water and without shade come back after you’re done and tell me how you feel about the heat standard,” she said.
