"We were harangued all the time from Congress about inspections. If we did one less inspection than the year before it was reason for an oversight hearing," recalls former OSHA administrator John Pendergrass, talking from his consulting office in Falls Church, Virginia.
Times have changed, as if you hadn't noticed. In 1995, OSHA conducted 13,264 less inspections than the year before- without any wild outcry from Capitol Hill. In fact, most safety and health professionals and Washington observers believe the Republican-dominated Congress is responsible for driving the numbers down to a record low level of 29,113 for fiscal year 1995. Compared to 1994, federal inspections were off 31 percent.