Late winter saw more plot twists in that long-running political drama called "OSHA reform": On February 19, Vice President Gore, speaking at an executive meeting of the AFL-CIO in Florida, said the White House would veto Republican-sponsored OSHA bills in the House and Senate. Unfazed, the Senate labor committee approved Sen. Nancy Kassebaum’s (R-Kan.) OSHA measure in the first week of March on a straight party-line vote. But days later, on the other side of Capitol Hill, the staff of Rep. Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) decided to stop work—until after the November elections—on Ballenger’s bold and broad bill to radically reshape the agency.
Patrick Murphy, Ballenger’s press spokesman, wants to make it clear, though, that his boss hasn’t given up. "Mr. Ballenger is still committed to OSHA reform," he says. But with President Clinton’s "unwillingness to talk" about OSHA policy and his interest in "currying favor with organized labor," Murphy says a major OSHA overhaul is not going to happen this year.