The Workforce Protections Subcommittee of the House Education and Labor Committee will hold a hearing on Thursday, April 30 on the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s Enhanced Enforcement Program. br>
The Enhanced Enforcement Program identifies high risk employers by their past behavior and targets them for additional scrutiny. However, the U.S. Department of Labor Inspector General’s Office issued a report on April 1 that found the Bush administration did not properly enforce worker health and safety laws used to oversee employers with history of safety violations. It shows that over the last five years, since the program was established, the EEP has failed to effectively deter employers from putting workers’ lives at risk.

This hearing on “Improving OSHA’s Enhanced Enforcement Program” will feature testimony from Jordan Barab, acting assistant labor secretary, OSHA; Eric Frumin, director of health and safety, Change to Win; Elliot Lewis, assistant inspector general for audits, U.S. Department of Labor; Jesus Royas, stepson of Raul Figueroa, a worker who was crushed to death as a result of unsafe working conditions, West Palm Beach, Fla.; and Jason Schwartz, partner, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP