“It’s going to get done,” said Enzi spokesman Coy Knobel. “He’s going to do what he can to get it overturned because it’s a bad rule, very flawed, and bad for the country. It doesn’t fix the problem.”

Knobel told Industrial Safety & Hygiene News that Enzi is hoping to build bi-partisan support in the next few weeks. Both the House and Senate must pass — by majority vote — language to nullify the ergo regulation, according to Enzi’s spokesman. President Bush must then approve the measure.

Enzi believes the White House and the Department of Labor under new Labor Secretary Elaine Chao will back his efforts to send the reg back to the drawing board, according to Enzi’s spokesman.

“I believe President Bush would gladly let Congress rid the country of the current rule and he would welcome time to work on an ergonomics rule that is well thought-out,” Enzi said in a prepared release.

Enzi’s spokesman said the Senator is not opposed to OSHA working on an ergonomics standard, but he wants to see something that will “help fix the problem.”

Congress must act quickly if Enzi is to accomplish his goal. The Congressional Review Act gives Congress a limited amount to time to study and act on agency rules. The ergo rule was published November 14, 2000, and Enzi said the deadline for Congressional action on the rule could fall in mid-March.

No federal agency rule has ever been successfully overturned through the use of the Congressional Review Act, but Enzi’s office called it “a mountain worth climbing.”