ASSE Urges OIRA to Let OSHA Silica Rulemaking Move Forward So All Stakeholders Can Be Heard
In a letter to Cass Sunstein, Administrator of the Office of Management and Budget’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) in the White House, ASSE urged his office to do everything possible to advance OSHA rulemaking on Occupational Exposure to Crystalline Silica so that ASSE’s members can play a meaningful part in seeing that OSHA promulgates an appopriate standard. While ASSE has no position on the rulemaking at this time, the Society expressed concern that OIRA is engaged in a conversation about the rulemaking with only select stakeholders, as the OIRA meeting record indicates. ASSE said its members already know how to protect workers from silica risks far above the current standard without being overly burdensome to employers. As it stands, its members are not being given the opportunity to tell OSHA how a standard can do the same.