Watch live wednesday at 2 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan 3, online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Next, a hearing on the federal governments role in protecting workers during the coronavirus pandemic. Good morning. The subcommittee on work force protections will come to order. Welcome, everyone. I note that our quorum is present. I note for the subcommittee mr. Courtney of connecticut, mr. Levine of michigan, mr. Castro of texas, dr. Roe of tennessee, mr. Guthrie of kentucky, mr. Smucker of pennsylvania, mr. Banks of indiana, mr. Watkins of kansas, mr. Mercer of pennsylvania, mr. Johnson of south dakota, mr. Cellar of pennsylvania are all permitted to participate in todays hearing with the understanding that their questions will come only after all members of the subcommittee on work force protections on both sides of the aisle who are present either in person or via remote participation pursuant to House Resolution 965 and the accompanying regulations thereto have had an opportunity to question the witnesses. Subcommittee is meeting today for a hearing to hear testimony on examining the federal governments actions to protect workers from covid19 merchandise all microphones both in the hearing room and for those members participating remotely will be kept muted as a general rule to avoid unnecessary background noise. Members will be responsible for unmuting themselves when they are recognized to speak or when they wish to seek recognition. A role call is not necessary to establish a quorum and efficient proceedings conducted remotely or with remote participants. Participations wherever there is an unofficial proceeding with remote participation the clerk willcall the role to help make clear who is present at the start of the proceeding. At this time i ask the clerk to call the role. Chairwoman adams. Present. Mr. Desonie, mr. Decono, mrs. Wild. Present. Mrs. Mcbath. Present. Ms. Omar. Present. Ms. Stevens. Present. Chairman scott. Present. Mr. Burn. Mr. Walker, mr. Klein, mr. Wright, mr. Murphy, chaerwoman adams this concludes the role. Thank you very much. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7c Opening Statements let me remind all of the Committee Members whether youre here or if youre particularly remote please mute your microphone. Thank you. Pursuant to Committee Rule 7c Opening Statements are limited to the chair and Ranking Member. This allows to hear from our witnesses sooner and provides our own members with adequate time to ask questions. I recognize myself now for the purpose of making an opening statement. Todays subcommittee hearing will explore the performance of the federal government in protecting worker safety during covid19 pandemic. I want to thank osha Deputy Assistant secretary sweat and nosha director howard for joining us today. The covid19 pandemic has resulted in the worst safety crisis in the history. Nothing compares. In the past four months more than 62,000 Health Care Workers weve asked to risk their lives without protective equipment have been diagnosed with covid19, and at least 291 have died. And this isnt an underestimate. According to cdc these shocking numbers are a mere fraction of the true toll due to the absence of reporting by as many as 27 states, new york city and the district of columbia. As we know infection outbreaks have not been limited to health care facilities. More than 17,000 Meat Processing workers have been infected and estimated 66 have died. One iowa tyson plant saw 60 of its employees test positive. A greely, colorado, meat packing plant closed after hundreds fell ill. Although the plant promised to test every working before reopening. The plant identified so many positive cases that it stopped testing and reopened anyway. Prisons, longterm care facilities, Grocery Stores, transportation systems, and warehouses have all experienced deadly outbreaks. Earlier this month the cdc reported 2,778 infections and 15 deaths among staff employed in correctional and detentional facilities. From late january to late april 36 of all reported infections at correctional facilities were suffered by staff. At least six employees of one warehouse in new york have died from covid19. 129 new York City Transit workers have died of the virus. As of last week 1,124 veterans employees have been diagnosed with covid19 and 31 have died. Some 2,400 postal workers have tested positive and six have dies from covid related illnesses. Its facing an outbreak of 36 cases at its facility in tucson. As we will discuss today we dont really know the toll to workers because this nation has no system for collecting data workplace. And employers are not obligated to publicly report these infections. Some Government Agencies refuse to make this information public due to employer concerns about adverse publicity leaving workers and the public unaware of what risks they are facing. We cannot lose sight of the fact that this is largely say tragedy inflicted on our nations essential workers. People who dont have a choice on whether they have to go to work. People who dont have a choice on whether they or many of those are on the frontliners, theyre low income workers and disproportionately people of color who doan have the luxury of teleworking from home. Covid19 is largely a workplace disease and a community tragedy. In iowa, nebraska, south dakota, coronavirus cases represent 18, 20 and 29 of the states total cases respectively according to the environmental working group. My home nate of North Carolina leads the nation with the number of meat packing plants facing an outbreak, the state department of health and Human Services reporting that at least 23 plants have outbreaks with more than 1,300 worker infections. Yet osha, the agency that this nation has tasked to protect workers, have been largely invisible. It is failed to develop the necessary tools that it needs to combat this pandemic and it has failed to fully use the tools that it has. Instead focusing principally on issuing press releases and voluntarily guidance. This hearing will focus on why that is and the price that this nations workers are paying for oshas inaction. Deep into this pandemic, osha has still not developed any enforceable standards for employers to follow that could protect workers from the airborne transmission of the novel coronavirus. And osha existing enforcement tools to combat that pandemic which includes standards covering respirator and personal protective equipment are inadequate and unused. While guide answer by the centers for Disease Control and prevention is useful, it is not binding. Only osha could enforce safe working conditions. And although osha used tis authority to protect workers, oshas own data shows the majority of the inspections are conducted only after workers have died. And osha has conducted complaints for less than 1 of the complaints filed while the secretary of labor said it does not need an Emergency Temporary Standard because osha already has the tools it needs to enforce guidelines to the general duty clause, the embarrassing truth is that osha has not issued a single citation under the general duty clause to enforce that guidance. Not one. This crisis was foreseeable. And osha was warned. It is clear after the h 1n 1 swine flu that standard was needed to require employers to ares the risk and mitigate the hazards. Such a hazard as well along the way at the beginning of the Trump Administration but in february 2017 that draft standard was mothballed and relegated to the longterm regulatory agenda where it languishes today. On january 1 i joined chairman bobby scott on calling on osha to put the Infectious Disease standard back on the agenda and urged osha to issue a compliance directed for the Health Care Sector and issue an Emergency Temporary Standard if the situation deteriorated. At the time of our request, there was just five confirmed covid19 infections in the u. S. On march 5th we wrote osha again describing how hundreds of Health Care Workers have been exposed and stated the obvious, that osha urgently needed to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard. Ets. In midmarch osha rejected an ets that the Health Care System fully understands the gravity of the situation and taking the appropriate steps to protect workers. In april with more than 720,000 infections nationwide, osha finally issued enforcement guidance but only covering the Health Care Sector. In mid may as workers continue to face risks of infection, illness and death, the agency still refusing to issue an Emergency Temporary Standard to protect workers from exposure to coronavirus. Here is what osha act says. It says shall provide for an Emergency Temporary Standard if it determines that employees are exposed to a grave danger from new hazards and that such emergency standard is necessary to protect employees from such danger. Circumstances like this pandemic are the exact reason that this exists. Yet osha continues to sit on the sidelines. So my question to the secretary of labor is how tens of thousands of workplace infections and hundreds of worker deaths, why is osha missing in action. Failure to take meaningful action has sent a clear message to workers across the country that they are on their own. On friday may 15th, the house of representatives passed the heroes act, hr 6800 which included covid19 every Worker Protection act represented by representatives and myself and directs osha for a temporary standard of seven days to protect workers and hospitals, melania tru meat packing plants and shipyards and other workplaces where a person may face risk from exposure. The heroes act would prohibit employers from retaliating against workers. As the states across the country more workers will be at risk of infection unless osha starts doing its job and if the reopening of workplaces drives up infection rates, states will be forced to inreinstate stayathome orders which do further damage to our economy. The only logical conclusion i could draw is that osha inadequate response has been informed more by politics than modern science and a necessity to protect workers should not be cramped by campaign slogans, about repealing two regulations for every new one that is created. Today were explore and hopefully answer why there has been a lack of political will in the face of this Public Health disaster and well learn why no one seems to care enough to even track the number of workers who are getting sick and dying. And finally i feel the need to respond to two items in miss sweats written testimony. Because of a lawsuit, miss sweat will refuse to answer any questions about an Emergency Temporary Standard and i what note for the record that there is no legal basis for this refusal, it is purely a political statement. And secondly i want to respond to miss sweats testimony that implies that criticism of oshas failure to issue an emergency standard or enforce existing standards does a disservice to the hard working men and women of osha. No one has more respect for the dedicated men and women or the staff of osha and the hard work that they do every day and in committee is shown by the Agency Budget and the opposition to the deterrent of roll backs to worker safety protection. The failure to address a lifethreatening hazard that workers are facing from covid19 is not the fault of osha professional staff but rather due to the unfortunate decisions of oshas political leadership. I would like to now yield to the Ranking Member, mr. Burn, for his opening statement. You are recognized. Thank you for yielding. Let me state for the record that the chairwoman is here physically present in this room. The chairman of the full committee mr. Scott is physically present in the room. The ranking republican member is physically present here in the room. Im physically present here in the room. In fact, there are 15 members of this committee physically present in the room. Nine republicans, six democrats. It is a safe environment, a simple environment as you could tell we are socially distanced. Not much has changed since the democrats decided at the 11th hour to call off last weeks hearing. Osha and nosha officials, my republican colleagues and i were ready to talk about the important work these agencies are doing to combat covid19. And were here again to do so today. It is indeed unfortunate that the democrats decided to play politics on an issue they assert is a top priority. The covid19 pandemic has been an extraordinary time for all americans. Many of us are coming out of mandatory stayathome orders after two months or more. People are returning to work in a new environment with a disease that is still relatively new and about which we still have much to learn. We know the disease affected different people in different ways. Many people who test positive have no or mild symptoms. But a small percentage get very ill and some of them, unfortunately, pass away. But two groups most likely to become very ill are those over 65 who make up 80 of all deaths in this country and those with Underlying Health conditions as listed by the cdc. The disease also presented varied level of risk for workers in different types of jobs. For example an Office Worker who doesnt interact where the publg faces much lower risk than any nurse in an icu. We need to come up with a reliable single standard for Workplace Safety, whether it is for Infectious Disease or covid19 specifically. How did osha handle complex safety and Health Issues in the past . From sars in the 2000s, during the bush administration, to merz, h1n1 and ebola during the Obama Administration, osha did not issue a new standard but instead enforced existing standards and issued guidance which in turn could be the basis for action against an employer under the general duty clause of the osha statute. Let me say that again. During the Obama Administration under three separate diseases, osha did not issue a standard. They issued guidelines and relied upon the guidelines for enforcing the general duty clause. When the acting assistant sect for osha during h1n1 which the chairman referred to, during that pandemic a man named jordan berab, when he testified before this committee in may of 2009 he said osha had ye ated guidance ance, quote, to hem employers determine the most appropriate workplace for the pandemic. And he went on to say because safety risks are greater in certain workplaces, osha is focusing its direct efforts on educati educating employers and employees in the high risk category and they issued a pyramid to categorize risk and only a small portion of employees were at the highest exposure risk level. Mr. Berab referenced postal protective equipment and respirators and sid that osha will ensure that employers follow the tactics that are need to protect Workers Health. Finally he quoted president obamas assessment for the situation of being one cause for deep concern but not panic. What has osha done with covid19 . Just like the Obama Administration, it is issued detailed guidelines, placed an enforcement emphasis on higher risk workplaces, used an occupational risk pyramid to categorize worker risk and remind of the existing standards on ppe, respirators, sanitation and others as well as obligations under the osha acts general duty clause to provide employers with a same and healthy workplace. In addition osha and the cdc have issued industry specific guidance for health care, nursing home and longterm care, retail pharmacy, car service, packaged delivery, retail, construction, manufacturing, restaurant and dental workplaces. And is still working on it. There are two problems with requiring a standard. First, we are still learning about this disease. And we just dont know enough information to meet the level necessary and appropriate to construct an adequate Emergency Temporary Standard and a permanent federal regulation and that is why the various guidance documents issued are so useful. They would be issued relatively quickly and modified as we learn more from the cdc and other Public Health officials and from the workplaces themselves. A standard at this point would be unproductive burden for businesses already struggling to reopen potentially exposing them to unnecessary liability risks during an already challenging time. And would do little to advance Workplace Safety. Second, setting a standard just takes too long. On average it takes osha seven years to compile all of the data necessary and meet all of the regulatory requirements for issuing a standard. I know democrats want an Emergency Temporary Standard or ets, which according to the bill pu must be done in seven days. The last time osha issued an ets was in 1983 and thats over turned because they could not meet the statutory requirements for issuance. They have lost more cases in court than it is won for the same reason. I know the speaker included a provision required by a standard of the bill of the house passed two weeks ago, a bill created in her Office Without any consultation with the white house and the senat