Not sure this is so much an opinion piece but “just the facts” on an issue that seems to be exploding in Washington. I am talking about “mandated reports by Congress."
By now, the federal government shutdown of early October is either faded news that reached some sort of settlement, or the U.S. has defaulted on its gargantuan debt
As the U.S. government remains locked in a stalemate – with a Pew poll showing that the GOP is getting most of the blame for the shutdown – disapproval of all politicians has hit an all-time low, with Congress earning an approval rating of only ten percent.
No, they didn’t turn off the lights and locked the doors. The show definitely goes on, and when you’re inside the expo or attending education sessions, the ugly world of federal government shutdowns seems far far away.
OSHA has issued a final rule that will require all federal agencies to submit their OSHA-required injury and illness data to the Bureau of Labor Statistics every year. This data will allow OSHA to analyze the injuries and illnesses that occur among the more than two million federal agency workers and develop training and inspection programs to respond to the hazards identified.
With $4.6 trillion in cuts proposed over the next decade, it’s difficult to predict what effect Rep. Paul Ryan’s ambitious GOP budget plan would have on specific programs and agencies, such as OSHA, the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA) and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH).
This morning, Secretary Ray LaHood announced to the employees of the U.S. Department of Transportation that after serving for four years in President Obama’s Cabinet, he would not be staying on for the second term. The Secretary sent the following email to DOT employees across the country, informing them of his plans:
The Washington Post’s Wonk Blog has a piece this week on the burgeoning costs of regulations. WaPo’s Jim Tankersley writes, “If you’re a business leader or conservative economist who worries that the federal government is strangling the economy in red tape, 2012 was a banner year. If you’re a consumer advocate or an environmentalist anxious for the government to do more to boost public health … ditto.”
In yet another repercussion of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has blocked BP from entering into any new contracts with the federal government.